In another part of the ruins were found a brass pike and some earthen vessels (one of which was very thin, and had the remains of fine white varnish on the outside);--also a beam of date-tree wood. Continuing the work downwards, the men arrived at a passage, in which they discovered a wooden coffin; opening which they found a skeleton, perfect in all its parts. Under the head was placed a round pebble, and a brass ornament was attached to the skeleton. On the outside, another brass ornament was found, representing a bird: and a little farther on, they discovered the skeleton of a child. No skulls were found, either here or in the sepulchral urns that were at the bank of the river. Mr. Rich, also, found a number of urns, in the bulwark on the banks of the river. These contained ashes, and bones in small fragments. Comparing these remains with the skeletons found in the Mujelibé, he judiciously remarks, that the two modes of sepulture decidedly prove what people they were who were so interred. "There is, I believe," he adds, "no reason to suppose that the Babylonians burnt their dead: the old Persians, we know, never did." It was the common usage with the Greeks. "From this he infers," says Porter, "that the skeletons in the Mujelibé were the remains of the ancient people of Babylon; and the urns in the embankment contained the ashes of Alexander's soldiers." From the south-east angle of the Mujelibé, a mound extends in a circular direction, and joins the Amran at its south-east angle, the diameter of the sweep being two miles and a half. This is supposed to have been the fortified enclosure that is described by Herodotus as encircling the palace. To the north of the Mujelibé there are no ruins of any importance. A few low mounds, however, are observed, occurring at intervals, on each side of the road from Hillah to Bagdad; but they are of an insignificant character, and, from their situation, they are supposed to have been burying-places outside the city, rather than buildings within its walls. The Mujelibé is supposed to have been a Babylonian mausoleum, rather than a temple of worship. In respect to the other ruins, it is probable that the Kasr and adjacent mounds are the remains of the royal palace, with its hanging gardens, enclosed with the circular mound, which formed the outer wall of the palace mentioned by Herodotus, and described more in detail by Diodorus. Two or three miles upwards from the river, are the remains of what have, hitherto, been considered remains of canals. A recent traveller[131], however, seems inclined to believe, that they are the remains of streets. His reasoning is probable. Canals would go all one way; but most of these cross each other at right angles, with immense spaces of open and level ground on each side of them.