[235] Layard, Monuments, second series, plate 5.
[236] For the reasons which led him to take this step, see the Introduction to the first series of plates published in the Monuments.
[237] The original arrangement of these things is shown in the second series of Layard’s Monuments, plate 4.
[238] We have round-headed steles of Assurnazirpal, of Shalmaneser II., of Samas-vul II., and of Sargon. Those of other princes are figured in the reliefs. In the Balawat gates we find Shalmaneser erecting them wherever his conquests led him (plate 12).
[239] We have not copied the uniform dark green tint forced upon the English publication by the necessity for printing in one colour. We have borrowed from the fragments in the possession of M. Schlumberger the broken hues of the patina deposited upon the bronze by age, a patina which has, perhaps, been too much removed by the cleaning to which the pieces in London have been subjected.
[240] In page 3 of his Introduction, Mr. Pinches speaks of a “crocodile and a young hippopotamus.” I do not think that either of those animals can ever have lived in the cold waters of Lake Van, which receives, in the spring, such a large quantity of melted snow.
On the other hand, the argument applied by M. Perrot to architectural forms (see vol. i. pp. 139 (note 2) and 395), may here be invoked by Mr. Pinches. It is more likely that the artist introduced such animals as were to be found in the rivers and meres of Mesopotamia, than that he ascertained how Lake Van was peopled before he began his work.—Ed.
[241] In order that we might give two interesting subjects on a single page, we have here brought together two divisions that do not belong to the same band in the original.
[242] Herodotus, i. 184.
[243] In repeating this hypothesis we have followed Professor Rawlinson (The Five Great Monarchies, vol. ii. pp. 119–121); to us it appears worthy of extreme respect.