a

came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.' Το make 66 footstool of mine enemies" is a common biblical expression of triumph. A procession of warriors carrying away the idols of a conquered nation, was highly interesting on account of the figures of the gods. The first was that of a female seated on a high-backed chair, holding a ring in one hand and a kind of fan in the other Her face was in full, and she wore the horned cap surmounted by a star. The next figure was also that of a seated female, wearing a similar cap and holding a ring in one hand. The third was partly concealed by a screen placed on a chair; and the fourth was that of a man walking, raising an axe in one hand and grasping an object resembling the conventional thunderbolt of the Greek Jove, in the other. The female figures may be those of Hera and Rhea, who were worshipped in the temple of Babylon; whilst the god may be identified with Baal or Belus, the supreme deity of the Semitic races, who, according to Diodorus Siculus, was represented in the act of walking. This bas-relief illustrates more than one passage in the Bible. Hosea prophesied that the idol of Samaria should be carried away by the Assyrianst; and Jeremiah declares that the Babylonians should burn the gods of the Egyptians, and carry them away captive. In the epistle supposed to have been written by the Prophet Jeremiah to the captive Jews, to warn them against the idolatries of the Babylonians, we find the following remarkable description of the gods represented in the Assyrian sculptures. "Now shall ye see, in Babylon, gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood, borne upon shoulders. And he that cannot put to death one that offendeth him holdeth a sceptre, as though he were a judge of the country. He hath also in his right hand a dagger and an axe."§ We learn from the same epistle that these idols were of wood laid over with gold, and that parts of them were polished by the workmen, that crowns were placed on their heads, that they were decked

† Ch. x. 6.

*Joshua, x. 24. Ch. xliii. 12. § That the Jews looked upon this Epistle as genuine, may be inferred from the reference to it in 2 Maccab. xi. 2, 3.

out in garments and purple raiment, and that fires or lamps were kept burning before them. Jeremiah describes the gods of the heathen as cut out of a tree of the forest, decked with silver and gold fastened with nails, and with blue and purple garments.* The star above the horned-cap of the figures in the bas-relief appears to point to an astral system personified in the idols; and it is to this custom of placing the star above the head of the god to which the Prophet Amos probably alludes, when he condemns the house of Israel for having "borne the tabernacle of Moloch and Chiun, their images and the star of their god, which they had made for themselves." †

Some of the sculptures had been carefully erased, and only a few traces of the figures remained. Several of the bas-reliefs were accompanied by descriptive inscriptions; and on the pavement was discovered a tablet recording the conquests of a king whose name occurs in no other ruins yet discovered, and to whom no place can yet be assigned in the Assyrian royal lists.

The three entrances to the south of the palace appear to have led into a magnificent hall, about 220 feet in length, the northern entrance to which was also formed by a pair of humanheaded bulls. The side walls had in some places completely disappeared, and the sculptures which were still standing had all suffered more or less from the conflagration and subsequent long exposure to the atmosphere.

As the level of the S. W. palace was considerably above that of the N. W., and as the site of many sculptures in it had not been discovered, it appeared to me possible that it had been built over the ruins of some more ancient building. By way of experiment, therefore, I directed long and very deep trenches to be opened in three different directions: nothing, however, was found, but a box or square hole, twenty feet beneath the surface, formed by bricks carefully fitted together, and containing several small idols in unbaked clay. They

were bearded figures, wearing high pointed mitres, and had probably been placed, for some religious purpose, beneath the foundations of the building. Objects somewhat similar, and in the same material, were discovered at Khorsabad, under the pavement slabs, between the great bulls.

Near the southern entrance to the great hall was found, amidst a mass of charred wood and charcoal, and beneath a fallen slab, part of a beam in good preservation, apparently of mulberry wood.

It may be inferred that a very long interval intervened between the time of the construction of the N.W. and of the S. W. palaces. A considerable period must have elapsed before a monarch destroyed the monuments of his predecessors to raise out of the materials a new habitation for himself or his divinities. It is highly probable that some great change had taken place before such an event could have happened, that a new dynasty of kings had ejected the older family; and that, as conquerors, they had introduced a new element into the nation. There are remarkable differences in the costume of the king, the forms of the chariots, the trappings of the horses, and the arms and armour of the warriors, which further tend to prove that some such change had taken place in Assyria between the destruction of the N.W. palace at Nimroud and the erection of that at Khorsabad. The state of art, as shown in the treatment of the sculptures, in their forms and in their ornaments, differed materially during the two periods, and points to a very great change in manners, the state of civilisation, and religion.

The south-east corner of the mound, which was considerably above the level of any other part, appears to have been the principal burying place of those who occupied the country after the destruction of the Assyrian palaces. Besides the two tombs already described, many others were subsequently discovered there. The sarcophagi were mostly of the same shape, that of a dish-cover; but there were other tombs constructed of bricks well fitted together and covered by a slab, similar to those above the ruins in the centre of the mound. In nearly all were

earthen vases, copper and silver ornaments, and small alabaster bottles. The skeletons, as soon as uncovered, crumbled to pieces, although entire when first exposed, and one skull alone has been preserved. Scattered amongst these tombs were vases of all sizes, lamps, and small objects of pottery-some unin jured, others broken into fragments.*

Removing the tombs, I discovered beneath them the remains of a building, and explored seven chambers. No sculptures or inscriptions were found in them; the lower part of the walls being panelled with plain slabs of limestone, three feet seven inches high and from two to three feet wide, and the upper being built of sun-dried bricks, covered by a thick coat of white plaster.

In the rubbish, near the bottom of the chambers, were found several small objects; amongst them a female head in white alabaster, now in the British Museum.

It only remains for me to mention a singular discovery on the eastern face of the mound, near its northern extremity. A trench having been opened from the outer slope, the workmen came upon a small vaulted chamber, about ten feet high, and the same in width, fifteen feet below the level of the mound, and in the centre of a wall of sun-dried bricks, nearly fifty feet thick. The arch was built of baked bricks. The chamber was filled with rubbish, the greater part of which was a kind of slag, and the bricks forming the vault and walls were almost vitrified, evidently from exposure to very intense heat. The chamber had thus the appearance of a large furnace for making glass or fusing metal. I am unable to account for its use, as there was no access to it, as far as I could ascertain from any side.

Much of course remained to be explored in the ruins; but with the limited means at my disposal I was unable to pursue my researches to the extent that I could have wished. If, after carrying a trench to a reasonable depth and distance, no

* Many of the small objects are in the British Museum.