horsemen, armed with spears and wearing the conical cap, are pursuing one whose horse has fallen. Behind is a falling figure and overhead is a vulture carrying in his beak unequivocal evidence of having already preyed upon the slain. In the sculptures of Khorsabad and Nimroud, the swiftness of the horses and the ferocity of their riders are well portrayed. "Their horses also are swifter than the leopards and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat." The Chal 991 Fig. 168.-ASSYRIAN MERCENARIES IN PURSUIT.-VULTURE WITH ENTRAILS. dean cavalry were proverbial for swiftness, courage, and cruelty. Oppianus, a Greek poet of Cilicia in the second century, in speaking of the horses bred about the Euphrates, says, "They are by nature war-horses, and so intrepid that neither the sight nor the roaring of the lion appals them; and besides, are astonishingly fleet." Fig. 169 represents an Arab on a dromedary, in rapid flight 1 Habakkuk, i. 8. 324 CAVALBY PURSUING MAN ON DROMEDARY. from the hot pursuit of two horsemen armed with long spears. Dying and headless men are stretched upon the plain. The next frieze contains a barefooted captive, apparently a female, tearing her hair with her upraised left hand, while the right carries a wine or water vessel. Following her are four camels. The frieze which follows is separated into two subjects by a line of inscription, and is the only example in the collection illustrative of the way in which the sculptures were arranged upon the walls of the original edifice. The frieze is not otherwise remarkable, the subject in the upper division representing the evacuation of a city, the scene being very nearly the same as Fig. 169.-CAVALRY PURSUING MAN ON DROMEDARY. Size, 3 ft. 4 in, by 3 ft. 9 in. that shown in fig. 166. The lower division shows the king in procession. Fig. 170. Warrior hunting the lion. We have here a chariot drawn by three horses, conveying a charioteer and bearded personage of distinction, who is discharging arrows. A lion, which has been wounded with several arrows, is struggling in the path of the chariot. All the details in this frieze are singularly perfect, but as they so closely resemble those previously described, it is not requisite to again particularise them. The next frieze represents a eunuch introducing four bearded prisoners whose hands are tied behind them. Two hands of another figure and part of a foot likewise appear; showing that this is but a portion of a frieze, wanting the remainder of that figure and the margin of the top and bottom. The eunuch here wears the dress so often described; but his position resembles that of Tartan (fig. 57), the left arm being elevated, as if commanding the prisoners to halt in the presence of some superior personage, who would probably appear on the adjoining slab. The prisoners are clad only in a short kilt, and wear no fillet about the head, nor sandals. The execution of the work is barbarous in the extreme. Fig. 170.-WARRIOR IN HIS CHARIOT, HUNTING THE LION. In the succeeding frieze we see the king, holding in his right hand two arrows and in his left a bow, engaged in addressing an officer in the costume of the enemy. The king is attended by his umbrella-bearer, and followed by his chariot, the horses of which are led by a groom. Above is seen the figure of Baal. We have then a man driving before him a flock of sheep and goats. The neighbouring fragment shows a captain of cavalry commanding a halt. He wears a crested helmet; his horse is pierced by the arrows of the enemy, and behind are the foreparts of two horses apparently belonging to a chariot. The last rilievo is a representation of the king drinking. Behind him stands a beardless attendant, bearer of the king's imple 326 NIMROUD.-LATEST DISCOVERIES. ments of war, together with the sceptre always held in the hand by the officers immediately about the royal person. The elaborate finish of this sculpture is beyond all praise; although there is much conventionality in the treatment of the hair and beard,―as, indeed, must always be the case in the art of sculpture. There is no doubt that the ancient Assyrians, like the modern Persians, bestowed much time and care upon their beards; as in these sculptures is sufficiently evident from the formal termination of the king's beard-always in four rows of crisped convolutions-and the precise intervals of plain hair. The hair, too, is not without its prescribed form,-wavy in front and terminating in a profusion of curls; from the centre of which a tassel is usually depended,-a custom still in use among the women of the East, who interweave with the hair skeins of black silk. The borders of the dresses of both the king and his attendant are furred, fringed, and richly embroidered in square compartments. The other portions of the dresses of the king and his attendant are the same as before detailed. The remains of the quiver and feather end of the arrows, with the groove for the bowstring, are perfectly represented. We are now about to examine the last contributions forwarded by Layard from the great Mound at Nimroud. The first figure that appears represents a priest with a twisted bandelet, decorated with rosettes, around his head, and in the usual sacerdotal dress, see figs. 60 and 162. He holds in his left hand a branch of three flowers, and his open right hand is upraised. Eighteen lines of inscription run across the sculpture. The size of the slab is 8 ft. by 2 ft. 9 inches, and it was situated at the side of a doorway, see description, page 158. The second figure is precisely similar in size and detail to the last, and occupied the corresponding side of the entrance, facing towards it. Across this slab run forty-six lines of inscription in a remarkably perfect condition. The third and largest slab of the collection is peculiarly interesting, both from the novelty of the subject, and from the figures presented to us. It portrays a Griffon pursued by a divinity, who is furiously hurling his thunderbolts at him, fig. 171, and is well executed throughout. The head of the griffon is that of a lynx, the face is snarling extravagantly, like the |