AN ANCIENT CAPITAL 



123 



tiif; hittite cod and king (or priest) in the smael galeEry at boghaz keouy 



more figures, about 67, though some have 

 grown indistinct of late years. 



This gallery is more than 90 feet long — • 

 a great hall open to the sky, where the 

 Hittites have united art and skill with the 

 use of all the natural advantages of the 

 spot. The floor in some places is simply 

 leveled rock, in others a pavement so 

 cunningly fitted to this that it seems all 

 natural rock floor. The figures, who 

 march from the open side of the hall 

 toward the opposite closed end, are 

 mostly in panels, and are smaller at the 

 entrance, gradually increasing in size to 

 the middle of the north w^all, where the 

 two processions meet face to face. I 



think this increase in size relates to the 

 importance of the characters figured 

 rather than to any Hittite idea of per- 

 spective. 



There is much dift'ercnce between the 

 figures in regard to the workmanship, 

 whether because of different periods in 

 art, or simply because made by more or 

 less skillful artists, we cannot tell. Some 

 of the figures are partly or quite covered 

 with a very fine brown enamel or thin, 

 hard stucco, and these are, of course, the 

 best preserved. Some are broken — parts 

 gouged out, probably by the vandal boys^ 

 of the neighborhood, through mere love' 

 of destruction. 



