154 
ASSYRIAN GALLERIES. 
among the finest examples of Assyrian bas-relief. They represent the 
King amongst his attendants, supernatural and human, apparently re¬ 
turned from battle, or the chace. All the figures are sumptuously 
attired, their robes fringed, and embroidered with sacred or mystical 
ornaments ; their sandals are painted in black and red, and remains of 
colour are discernible in the eyes. 
21, 2*2, 23. Three slabs, forming one subject, and originally occu¬ 
pying the North End of the Chamber. In the middle is the king, 
seated on a throne, with his feet on a footstool, and in his right hand a 
shallow cup. Before him is an eunuch, holding out a patera or vessel 
with a curved handle, and fanning the king with a fly-flapper; he is 
followed by a winged and double-horned figure, with the sacrificial 
fir-cone and basket. Behind the king are two eunuchs bearing his 
arms, and the foremost fanning him with the fly-flapper; after them 
follows another winged personage, similar to that on the other 
side. 
24, 25, 26, are all from the East Side of Chamber G. The entire 
wall was covered with repetitions of the same two groups of figures, 
each repetition occupying in the whole three slabs. The specimens 
selected by Mr. Layard present portions of different groups, which are 
here arranged in correspondence, though not in actual juxtaposition, 
vrith each other. They are as follows : 
24. Winged, double horned figure, with fir-cone and basket, and 
king with his bow, and two arrows held up a symbolical position. 
25. Winged, double-horned figure, with fir-cone and basket, com¬ 
pleting a group with another slab similar to the preceding. Eunuch 
bearing the king’s arms, belonging to a slab similar to the following. 
26. King with a cup and bow, an eunuch fanning him with a fly- 
flapper. The bows on this slab and No. 24 have each been painted 
red. 
The slabs next succeeding are from the small Temple at the North- 
West extremity of the Great Mound, dedicated to the God of War. 
Nos. 27 29 stood originally, as here, at. right angles to each other, 
No. 27 being on the external wall of the building, and Nos. 28 and 29 
on the side of a doorway leading to one of the chambers. On the 
opposite side was a similar group, of which the return slab on the 
external wall (No. 32) was alone removed by Mr. Layard. 
27. Figure, apparently of a priest, richly attired, with flowers on 
his head, and in his right hand a branch with three blossoms. 
28. 29. A four-winged male figure, wearing the triple-horned cap, 
and brandishing thunderbolts, pursues at full speed a monster with the 
head and body of a lion, but with horns, wings, and the feet and tail 
of an eagle, who is represented wiih remarkable spirit, ramping, and 
angrily snarling. In the original position of this bas-relief, at the en¬ 
trance of the temple, it would obviously typify the extrusion of the 
Evil Spirit. At the back of the two slabs is the standard inscription 
of the monuments of Sardanapalus, which was hidden, anciently, against 
the wall. Both slabs were found shattered into fragments, and their 
surface dilapidated by the action of the fire, in which the building 
perished. 
29*. A restoration, painted in chiaroscuro, of the figure upon the 
slab which originally occupied the position corresponding to this: 
