were generally without armour or helmets, their hair falling loosely on their shoulders. Some, however, wore helmets, which varied in shape from those of the conquerors. Helmets. (Centre Palace, Nimroud.) Battering-rams also differed in form from those represented in the earlier sculptures. The besieged castles, like those of the Assyrians, appear to have been built upon artificial mounds. The battering-ram was rolled up to the walls on an inclined plane constructed of earth, stones, and trees, which appears to have been sometimes paved with bricks or squared stones, to facilitate the ascent of the engine. This mode of besieging a city, as well as the various methods of attack portrayed in the sculptures, are frequently alluded to in Scripture. Ezekiel, prophesying of Jerusalem, exclaims, "lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mound against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering-rams against it round about:" and Isaiah, "Thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria: he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it."+ The shields mentioned by the prophet are probably those of wicker-work, represented in the * Ch. iv. 2. † Isaiah, xxxvii. 33.; compare 2 Kings, xix. 32.; Jeremiah, xxxii. 24. and xxxiii. 4.; Ezekiel, xvii. 17. bas-reliefs as covering the whole person and resting on the ground. Some of the battering-rams were not provided with towers for armed men, and some were without wheels; the latter were probably "the forts" which Nebuchadnezzar built round about Jerusalem.* These forts appear to have been mere temporary erections of wood and wicker-work; and the Jews were expressly forbidden to use for the purpose trees affording sustenance to man, "only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued."+ Ezekiel, in prophesying the destruction of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, has faithfully recorded the events of an Assyrian siege, and the treatment of the conquered people; his description illustrates in a remarkable manner, the bas-reliefs of Nimroud: : "Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field: and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets: he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water." * Jeremiah, lii. 4. † Deut. xx. 19, 20. Ezek. xxvi. 7—12. The battering-ram appears to have been directed by men within the framework, which was frequently covered with drapery or hides, ornamented with fringes and even with devices. Warriors before a besieged City. A Battering-ram drawn up to the Walls, and Captives impaled. (Centre Palace, Nimroud.) On two slabs was a bas-relief of considerable interest, representing the sack of a city.* The conquerors were seen carrying away the spoil, and two eunuchs, standing near the gates, wrote down with a pen on rolls of some pliable material, probably a kind of paper or leather, the number of sheep and cattle driven away by the soldiers. In the lower part of the *Now in the British Museum. S bas-relief, were carts drawn by oxen, carrying women and children. Near the gates were two battering-rams, which, the city having been taken, were no longer at work. Assyrian Warriors fighting with the Enemy. An Eagle is carrying away the Entrails of the Slain (Centre Palace, Nimroud.) Amongst other bas-reliefs may be mentioned the king seated on his throne, receiving prisoners with their arms bound behind them; eunuchs registering the heads of the enemy, laid at their feet by the conquerors; idols borne on the shoulders of men; and a walled city standing on the sea, or on a river. The spoil represented in these bas-reliefs as carried away from the conquered nations, consisted chiefly of cattle, sheep, |