ASSUR AND NINEVEH. 167 
he set up female winged colossi of white stone and ivory (or 
perhaps stone of the colour of ivory), which bore ¢dluru 
(?columns) and whose claws were curved. “TI set them up in 
their gates, and caused them to pass as a wonderment,” says the 
kine. If one might make a suggestion with regard to these 
interesting objects, it is that they were small and more of the 
nature of statuettes than of statues, and were in fact possibly the 
same as that beautiful winged lioness found by the late G. Smith 
at Nineveh in 1873-4. He describes it as a winged cow or bull 
(it is restored in accordance with this description) in fine yellow 
stone, with a human head surmounted by a cylindrical cap 
adorned with horns and rosette ornaments, wings rising from 
the shoulders, and a necklace round the neck. On the | top of 
the wings, which stretch backwards, stands the base of a column 
in the usual Assyrian style. He describes it as being 3 inches 
high without the feet (which are wanting), 3 inches. long, and 
having a breadth of 14 inches. As the face is unbearded it is 
almost certainly intended for a female, and the absence of any 
traces of an udder makes it more probable that it is intended 
for a winged lioness-sphinx rather than a woman-headed cow. 
Architectural details concerning the newly-erected palace 
follow. The recesses of the chambers were lighted “like the 
day,” and the interiors were surrounded with decorative orna- 
ments of silver and copper and with burnt brick and valuable 
stones, one of them being lapis-lazuli. Some of the great trees 
used in the construction of the palace had been brought, the 
king says, from secret places among the mountains of Sirara, 
their positions having been revealed to him by Assur and IS8tar, 
lovers of his priesthood. The stone (marble, or perhaps ala- 
baster) used was regarded in the times of his fathers as a fit 
decoration for the sheath of a sword (implying that it was 
something rare), and was brought from the land or mountain of 
Ammanana, and a stone called tur-mina- -banda, identified by 
Mr. L. W. King with breccia, which was used for the great 
receptacles of the palace, came from the city Kabridargilé on 
the boundary of Til-Barsip (Birejik). The white limestone 
used for the winged bulls and female colossi, and other similar 
statues of alabaster came from the district of the city Balatu, 
near Nineveh. 
These bulls and lions were made in a single piece of stone, 
and it is noteworthy that the transportation of similar objects, 
probably for the palace in question, is represented more than 
once on the slabs from Sennacherib’s palace which were dis- 
covered by Layard and are now in the British Museum. It does 
M 
