THE SCIENTIST. 
187 
In the Yezidee houses of the pres- 
ent day we see the ohi forked column 
of primitive man with but few im- 
provements. Finding that the col- 
umns needed something to rest upon 
which was broad enough to prevent 
them from crushing into the earth 
and from being undermined by the 
wearing away of the dirt around their 
bases through the constant passing 
to and fro within the house, or that 
combined with rain, in the case of 
those outside, they placed under- 
neath them a rude base and plinth 
block. As the roofs grew larger and 
weightier it took the combined 
strength of several rafters over each 
line of columns to support it. To 
uphold these rafters they cut off the 
two forks at the same height and 
placed upon the tops of them a short 
piece of timber, hewn off smooth on 
its upper surface. 
From this rude forked column 
were developed the two distinctive 
styles of Assyrian and Persian capi- 
tals. The most peculiar is that 
which is called the double bull capi- 
tal. In the great hall of Xerxes, in 
Persepolis, the best examples have 
been found. They are 67 feet 4 
inches in height from the floor to 
the top of the bulls' heads, or 64 
feet to the under side of the beam 
that lay between the bulls. 
The other order has rather an 
Ionic style of volutes and is nearly 
identical with the former except in 
the height of the shaft. The capi- 
tal, however, is very different, being 
16 feet 6 inches in height, making 
the whole order 57 feet 9 inches. 
This latter order when used inter- 
nally was surmounted w^ith brackets 
of wood which supported the roof. 
It is probable that they were used 
externally, and the bull capital was 
placed above them. The shafts had 
upwards of fifty tiutes and the bases 
were moulded and ornamented in a 
very rich manner. 
The earliest example of a stone 
copy of the Egyptian bundles of 
reeds, we find at the tombs at Beni 
Hassan in Middle Eg3''pt. These 
chambers are cut into the rock and 
many of them are so cheerful and 
well lighted as to make one doubt 
whether they were originally in- 
tended for tombs or for dwellings. 
In one of these tombs we find a stone 
column, which is plainly a copy of 
the old reed construction. A flat 
plate has been added at the top and 
bottom, but here we have bonds of 
byblus around the neck of the col- 
umn and above them a swelling out 
of the reeds to form a capital. This^ 
became the favorite form of capital 
among the Egyptian architects. 
In another of these tombs we find 
a reed column with a lotus flower 
for a capital. These tombs belong 
to the 12th Dynasty which com- 
menced 2528 B. C. 
In the Rhamession built by the 
great Rhamses of the 15th century 
B. C, we And good examples of the 
later types. Here the shafts have 
become perfectly round, but the 
general form of the columns shows 
plainly their derivation. 
