S.W. PALACE.

The portions of Mr. Layard's discoveries in the S.W. palace are at present confined to two slabs, both much mutilated, and two fragments. These two slabs have a considerable similarity, and apparently refer to the same event. On the first are two horsemen, in peaked helmets, charging a third, who is flying from them; the first pursuer appears to have driven his spear through the enemy in front of him, who is falling from his horse. Behind the horseman is a vulture with the entrails of the slain in its beak. This slab has been much injured, and the edges have been cut off apparently to make it fit into another building, for which it was not originally adapted. The marks of the defacing chisel are very apparent on the left hand side of it. The second slab represents a similar scene of an enemy

on horseback pursued by two Assyrian horsemen. Like the preceding, a considerable portion of this slab has been cut off. The helmets the pursued enemy wear are peculiar, and unlike those worn by the Assyrians; they have considerable resemblance to the Greek crested helmet. The two fragments are, first, a bearded head wearing a singular shaped and horned cap; and a bust of a figure wearing a close fitting woollen-cap, and holding up both hands with the fists doubled. The attitude of this figure is almost identical with that of the right hand man on the monkey-slab, and the head dress of the two figures is precisely the same. The material in which this fragment is wrought is quite peculiar, and unlike that of any other slab in the collection. As we have already stated, the S. W. Palace appears to have been made up from the ruins of previous buildings, and, though we cannot in all cases be sure to what edifice these slabs and fragments belong, we think that there can be no doubt of the correctness of Mr. Layard's theory of the origin of that building.

Inscriptions.

The inscriptions preserved in the Nimrúd Rooms consist of two slabs of alabaster, engraven on both sides, and found under winged human-headed lions at one of the entrances to Ch. B. of the N. W. Palace; a large slab which served as a pavement at the same entrance, and the Obelisk which was found in the Central mound. Mr. Layard gives an interesting account of the discovery of the Obelisk, which shows how fortuitous was much of the success which attended his exertions. He states, that, after excavating for some time, and finding nothing to reward him for his labours, he dug a trench fifty feet long into the heart of the centre of the mound, but with equally little profit: and that he was on the point of ordering the work to be stopped and the hands transferred to some other place, when the projecting corner of a piece of black marble was uncovered, lying on the very edge of the trench. This corner was part of an Obelisk about seven feet in height, and was lying on its side about ten feet below the surface. It was flat at the top and cut into three gradines. It was sculptured on the four sides, and there were in all twenty small bas-reliefs, and above, below, and between them was carved an inscription 210 lines in length. The whole was in excellent preservation, very few characters of the inscription being deficient; and the figures were as sharp and well defined as if they had been carved but a few days before. The King is there represented, followed by his attendants;

a prisoner is at his feet, and his vizir and eunuchs are introducing men leading various animals, and carrying vases and other objects of tribute on their shoulders, or in their hands. The animals are, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the Bactrian or two-humped camel, the wild bull, the lion, a stag, and various kinds of monkeys. Among the objects carried by the tribute-bearers may perhaps be distinguished the tusks of the elephant, shawls, and bundles of precious wood. From the character of the bas-reliefs, it was natural to conclude, when it was first discovered, that this monument referred to the conquest of India, or of some country far to the East of Assyria; an expectation, however, which has not been confirmed by the interpretation of the inscriptions upon it. Mr. Layard almost imme

diately packed the Obelisk up and despatched it on a raft to Baghdad, whence, after it had been under the care of Colonel Rawlinson for some time, it has safely come to England. Within the last year Colonel Rawlinson has published a sketch of his interpretation of the Obelisk inscription in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society; premising, however, that the reading so given is not to be considered in the light of a critical interpretation, but rather as giving a general idea of the nature of Assyrian records. From this essay it appears, that the Inscription on the Obelisk is the personal annals of the reign of Temenbar II., the son of Sardanapalus, for a period of thirty-one years, commencing with an invocation to the Gods to protect the Assyrian Empire, and proceeding to narrate the events year by year whereby this king's reign was distinguished. The Central Palace, where it was discovered, was built by this monarch. A great many curious things are noticeable in this inscription, which we have not time and space to discuss here. Those who wish to follow out the subject more fully, will find all that is yet made out of this inscription in "A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria, by Major H. C. Rawlinson, C.B., Lond., 8vo. 1850," the substance of two lectures delivered before the Asiatic Society in the spring of last year.

Besides the larger inscriptions, there are five short Epigraphs attached to the five series of figures, containing a sort of register of the tribute sent in by five different nations to the Assyrian King: Colonel Rawlinson, however, adds that they do not, as might have been expected, follow the series of offerings as they are represented in the sculpture with any approach to exactitude.

The first Epigraph records the receipt of tribute from Shehuá, of Ladsán, a country which joined Armenia, and is possibly connected with Lazistán. The second line of offerings are said to have been sent by Yahua, son of Hubiri, a prince who is not mentioned in the annals, and of whose country we are ignorant. The third is the tribute of a country called Misr, and which there is every reason to suppose indicates Egypt. Colonel Rawlinson conjectures from them that since Misr is not mentioned in the Obelisk Annals, it was in subjection to Assyria, during the whole of the reign of Temenbar II. The fourth tribute is that of Sut-pal-adan, of the country of the Shekhi, probably a Babylonian or Elymæan Prince, who is not otherwise mentioned. The fifth is that of Barberanda, the Shetina, a Syrian tribe, probably the same as the Sharutana of the Hieroglyphics. Colonel Rawlinson states that he cannot at present identify the various articles which are named in the Epigraphs; that the mention of gold and silver, pearls and gems, ebony and ivory, may be made

out with more or less certainty, but that the nature of many of the other offerings cannot even be conjectured.

With regard to the animals, that horses and camels may be identified, the latter being described as "beasts of the desert with the double back;" but that the more remarkable ones, the elephant, wild bull, unicorn or rhinoceros, and the monkeys or baboons, are not specified unless they are included under the category from the river of Arki and the country beyond the sea."

KHORSABÁD.

of "

rare animals

Khorsabád was, as we have stated, the scene of the successful labours of M. Botta, whose splendid collection of Assyrian antiquities procured from that place, is among the most valuable of the collections in the Louvre at Paris. The Museum possesses a considerable number of specimens from this ruin, some of which were the earliest results of Assyrian excavation which reached England. The finest slabs are, without doubt, those which were procured by Colonel Rawlinson, and which came to England towards the close of the last year, in the same ship which conveyed the lion and the bull. These two slabs were originally each carved on two separate blocks of stone, and afterwards united together. They represent a gigantic winged human figure, more than thirteen feet in height, clad in the customary Assyrian dress, and wearing a conical cap surmounted by two horns on each side of it. The right hand is raised and holds the fir-cone, the left carries a basket, symbolical emblems of common occurrence on the Assyrian sculptures, but of which no satisfactory explanation has, as we think, yet been offered. The great peculiarity of these slabs is the mode of representation which has been adopted by the artist. It will be observed that the figures are walking in the directions, respectively, of the right and left hand; but that, at the same time, the heads and bodies down to the knees are drawn in full to the spectator, the eyes of the figures looking directly out of the picture. In the ancient building, where they were discovered, these figures stood each facing one of the gigantic human-headed bulls, to whom they were apparently offering the fir-cones they hold in their right hands.

Besides these newly arrived specimens of the later Assyrian art of Khorsabád, the Museum possesses several slabs more or less injured, procured by Mr. Hector, a gentleman resident at Mosul, from the same place. These are, a large figure of the King standing to the right, and resting his right hand on a long staff, while his left reposes on his sword handle, the end of that weapon being richly ornamented by lions' heads placed back to back, and the original