[135] The slab numbered 107 contains, perhaps, the nearest approach to a reproduction of the group in question.
[136] Art in Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 197–203, and figs. 179 and 180.
[137] This was the opinion of M. de Longpérier (Musée Napoléon III., description of plate 1).
[138] See vol. i. page 242.
[139] See also plate xii.
[140] Layard, Discoveries, p. 563.
[141] De Longpérier, Notice des antiquités assyriennes du Musée du Louvre, 3rd edition, 1854.
[142] We take this transcription from a note sent by Dr. Birch to the Athenæum (14 July, 1877), when the ivory in question, together with many more objects, was stolen from the British Museum. It was offered by the thief, in the first place, to M. de Longpérier, who thought it a forgery, and afterwards to the keeper of the Hague Museum, who, put on his guard by the publicity which by that time had been given to the theft, detained the piece and restored it to its legitimate owners.
[143] Art in Ancient Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 293–295.
[144] Layard, Discoveries, p. 361. The same characteristics may be recognized in the alabaster statues found by Place in one of the harem courts at Khorsabad (Ninive, vol. i. pp. 122–125, and vol. iii. plate 31, bis.). They are shown on a small scale in our fig. 197 (vol. i.). We may see that they were set with their backs against a wall, and that they carried a cushion on their heads, on which we have placed a vase of flowers. These statues were drowned in the Tigris!