168 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 
not require a very lengthy inspection of these gems of Assyrian 
art to realise that they are exceedingly instructive illustrations 
of the way in which the great Assyrian palaces were built. We 
see there the palace- platform being constructed, and the finished 
and unfinished human-headed bulls being dragged to the positions 
in which they were to be set up. The king speaks of the 
perfection of the form of the female colossi of marble :— 
“Like glorious day their bodies were bright,” 
and we can easily imagine the imposing effect which they had 
when they were new and fresh from the sculptor’s hands, on the 
day when the palace was completed. 
And here, in the course of his description, Sennacherib touches 
on another subject, namely, the casting of bronze. When, in 
early days, he says, the kings his fathers wished to make an 
image of themselves in bronze to set up in the palaces (or 
temples) they made all the artizans groan in their construction :— 
“ Without instruction, not understanding the matter, 
for the work of their desire, 
they poured out oil, the fleece of a sheep 
they sheared within their lands.” 
This, as Mr. King points out, probably refers to some ceremony 
in which oil and a fleece were used, in order to bring good luck 
upon the work. Sennacherib, however, through the clever 
understanding which the divine prince Nin-igi-azaga (the god 
Ea, patron of handicrafts) had conferred upon him, combined 
with his own research and inquiry into the matter, was able to 
make “great columns of bronze,” and colossal lions “open of 
knee ”—probably meaning with the legs separated from each. 
other, and not joined together with a core of metal. 
“ By the counsel of my understanding, 
and the inquiry of my mind, 
I formed the bronze-work, and 
made its execution artistic. 
Of great beams and framework, 
the forms of 12 shining (?) lions, 
with 12 bull-colossi 
sublime, which were perfect as to form, 
(and) 22 colossal heifers, upon whom 
was lusty beauty, who were mantled with strength, 
and vigour abounded, 
according to the command of the god 
I made moulds of clay, and 
