OF THE ARROW-HEADED CHARACTER. 505 
brick. On most of such we find the style charac- 
ters on the edge, as seen above ; that situation 
being best adapted to enable the inscription being 
seen when the brick was placed in the wall—that 
on the side being hid, as a matter of course, and 
only existing as a record to be brought to light 
on the destruction of the building. It may not 
be out of place to remark here how very near 
the Babylonians came in contact with the art of 
printing, in their stamping a page of inscriptions 
at once, and in the manner of stereotype! also. 
The next stage in the history of this remarkable 
alphabetic character, is that in which we find it 
occurring on other substances than that which we 
may so properly consider as its native one, namely, 
clay. In many Babylonian and Assyrian remains 
we find that this singular character occurs in 
conjunction with sculptures in marble and other 
stones, on all of which, however, it preserves with 
singular faithfulness all the characteristic features 
which are inherent and natural to it in the case 
of clay, namely, the triangular form, and above 
all, the depressed angle. See Fig 4, No. 2, or 
Fig 4, No. 1, ato. The only slight variety is 
that of the curved side, which we have explained 
might have been introduced as an embellishment, 
38 
