some, containing the rosette and ornaments which we have been in the habit of considering Greek; but unquestionably the most interesting of these fragments are the written and stamped cuneiform writings. It is most remarkable that so near an approach to printing as was made by the Assyrians and the Egyptians, more than three thousand years ago, did not sooner produce the invention of modern times; especially when we find that even in its infant state, the art was perfect as far as it went. The art of block-printing may have been transmitted to China at this early period; and may there have been advanced to that additional grade, namely, the transfer of the impression to paper, beyond which limit it has only recently advanced in that country. Besides the letters, another curious and interesting impression is observable on one of these bricks: it is that of the footsteps of a weazel, which must have sported over the recent brick before it had left the hand of the fabricator. The little animal and the mighty king have stamped the record of their existence on the same piece of clay.1 THE OBELISK. The Nimroud obelisk is 6 feet 6 inches in height: the greatest width at top 1 foot 5 inches, and at bottom 2 feet, the width at the sides being somewhat less. It is made of a very defective piece of black marble, traversed obliquely throughout its length by a broad vein of whitish heterogeneous matter. The bad quality of the marble indicates not merely the deficiency of good and suitable material in the neighbourhood, but an extreme paucity of resources in a nation apparently so great; for to no other cause can we attribute the use of such an unsightly and bad stone for the purpose of a monument. We have formerly pointed out that these sculptured remains are far from remarkable for artistic beauty-and this obelisk forcibly illustrates our observations; for, however interesting as a historical document, as a work of art no one can rate it highly; and we ourselves are by no means inclined to place it on a par with any Egyptian obelisk- -or even to compare it with that of the Fayoum, which bears fully as many figures. There is a want of precision in the Nimroud 1 For the above notices, see "Athenæum," Nos. 1025, 1027, 1098, 1099; likewise "Illustrated London News." NIMROUD.-THE OBELISK. 339 specimen, shown in the lines intended to be straight, and in Fig. 178.-FRONT VIEW. the spaces intended to be equal; a repetition and feebleness of z 2 340 NIMROUD. FRONT OF OBELISK. invention, and a carelessness of execution throughout that must ever keep it low in the scale of art. The form of this monument is not, correctly speaking, that of an obelisk, for the top is surmounted by three steps, and it is far from square in plan. The whole of the upper part, including the steps, is thickly inscribed with cuneiform characters. Each side is then divided into five compartments of sculpture, with cuneiform characters between and along the sides, and the base for 1 foot 4 inches in height, is surrounded by entablatures of cuneiform, containing twenty-three lines. The first compartment of the front (fig. 178) represents the great king, who, holding two arrows and attended by his eunuch and bearded domestic, the captain of his guard, receives the homage of a newly-subjugated province, to which the person standing erect before him is constituted governor. The king seems to be in the act of presenting the arrows and a bow, as insignia of office, or more probably using divination in the appointment of the new governor. High in the background, between the great king and the satrap, are two emblems: one of Baal; the other a circle surrounding a star; the emblems being the same as those which occur on other sculptures from Nimroud, and near the figures on the rocks of Nahr el Kelb. As regards the meaning of the emblems, we take one to be a contraction for that figure of the divinity which accompanies the king to battle in the various rilievi; but why accompanied by the globe-which in the representation of the next compartment is on the right instead of on the left sideit is difficult to conceive, unless it be to signify that the presentation of tribute was so vast that it occupied from sunrise to sunset; or that the dominion of the great king extended from the rising to the setting sun. The second compartment comprises the same number of figures, and similarly arranged, excepting that the eunuch behind the king holds an umbrella, and that in the place of his satrap stands the cupbearer with his fly-flap. In this representation the forms of the cap and robe of the person kissing the feet of the king are more distinctly delineated, and furnish matter for consideration in describing another compartment at the back of the obelisk. In the third compartment are two men, each leading a Bactrian camel. The men wear the fillet round the head and the Ezek. xxi. 21, 22. short tunic, and are without boots and sandals-the dress being that of a people with whom the king is represented, in many of the sculptures of Nimroud, to be at war. The fourth compartment exhibits a forest in a mountainous country, occupied by deer and wolves, or lions. This is an episode in the story related on the monument, intimating the vastness of the dominion of the king of Nineveh, which extended not only over populous districts, but over forests and mountains inhabited solely by wild beasts. Thus in Daniel: "And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all."1 The fifth and last compartment on this side of the obelisk represents a people with whom we have made acquaintance in the Hall of Judgment at Khorsabad, and of whom we remarked that they resembled in costume some figures we had seen from the ruins of Nineveh that we were sure represented Jews. They are a short-bearded race, wearing long robes and boots, and a remarkable cap like a bag, the end of which is made to turn back instead of falling towards the front like the Phrygian. In this particular compartment the people carry wood or bars of metal, baskets with fruit, bags and bundles; but on others the tribute offered by the new race-the recent conquest of which the monument appears especially to commemorateconsists likewise of camels, fringed cloths, and vases of various forms and sizes. In evidence of the conquest, the action of the figures must be particularly noted; the prostrate attitude in the first two compartments, and of those wearing the same costume who head the tribute-bearers in subsequent representations, being all indicative of fear or respect as exhibited in the bended back and knee, which as they advance is exchanged for the prostrate posture of submission and homage yet common in the countries from which the monument is brought. The other people, of whom we formerly spoke, as contending with the king in battle, bring elephants, monkeys, and baboons with human faces. They are clad in short tunics, and wear a fillet round the head, but are barefooted. This completes the description of the front of the obelisk, and gives some idea of the people shown on the three other sides. The first compartment on the left side (fig. 179) contains 1 Daniel, ii, 38, |