resembling a fir-cone in the right.* On his head he wore a

* This square vessel was probably of metal, sometimes made to resemble a basket. It may have contained water, as one of the sacred elements; whilst the fir-cone, from its inflammable nature, may have typified fire, another holy element. Such is the only explanation I can give of the two objects so generally seen in the Assyrian sculptures.

rounded cap, ornamented at the lower part by curved upwards in front. The garments of bot a stole falling from the shoulders to the ankl tunic underneath, descending to the knee, were fully decorated with embroideries and fringes. in a profusion of ringlets on their shoulders, a were elaborately arranged in alternate rows of cu the relief was

outline was careful, and of the sculptu bad. The lim ated with pe

and the mus faithfully, tho too strongly, centre of the ing the figur scription. Adjoining

a second, cut

a corner, SO an elegant de curved branc from a kind terminated i graceful form

the figures las turned, as if oration, towar it was evide emblem; and

it the holy tr life, so univer

the remotest periods in the East, and which was the religious systems of the Persians to the fi

of their empire by the Arabian conquerors. The flowers were

Assyrian Ornament. (Nimroud.)

Greek Honeysuckle Ornament.

formed by seven petals springing from two tendrils, or a double scroll; thus in all its details resembling that tasteful ornament of Ionic architecture known as the honeysuckle. The alternation of this flower with an object resembling a tulip in the embroideries on the garments of the two winged figures just described, and in other bas-reliefs subsequently discovered, establishes, beyond a doubt, the origin of one of the most favourite and elegant embellishments of Greek art. We are also reminded, by the peculiar arrangement of the intertwining branches, of the "network of pomegranates," which was one of the principal ornaments of the temple of Solomon.* This sculpture and the two winged figures resembled in their style and details several of the fragments built into the S.W. palace, proving at once, from whence the greater part of the materials used in the construction of that building had been obtained.

Greek Honeysuckle Ornament.

Adjoining this corner-stone was a figure of singular form, A human body, clothed in robes similar to those of the winged

* 1 Kings, vii. 41, 42. Similar trees, in which the flowers above described were replaced by pomegranates, were afterwards discovered in the centre palace of Nimroud. Mr. Fergusson, in his "Palace of Nineveh and Persepolis restored," has conjectured that this remarkable object represents the " grove or "groves" which led the Israelites into idolatry. (Judges, iii. 7.; 1 Kings, xiv. 23. ; 2 Kings, xxi. 3. 7. &c.) Mr. Fergusson also remarks, with regard to the connection between the ornaments mentioned in the text, and those of Greek architecture," that it is now impossible to doubt that all that is Ionic in the arts of Greece is derived from the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates." (P. 340.)

men already described, was surmounted by tl eagle or of a vulture.* The curved beak,

length, was half open, and displayed a narrow poi on which were still the remains of red paint. On t

*It has been suggested that it is the head of a cock, questionably that of a carnivorous bird of the eagle tribe.