138 
SHIRAZ TO PERSEPOLIS. 
general circumstance) as that which we had so often seen represented 
at Shapour and Nakshi Rustam . He has the distinguishing globe on 
his head, and offers a ring to the opposite figure; who, seizing it with 
his right hand, holds a staff or club in his left. Behind the personage 
with the globe, are two figures, one of whom, with a young and 
pleasing face holds the fan, the customary ensign of dignity: and the 
other, with hard and marked features, and a beard, rests on the pom¬ 
mel of his sword with one hand, and beckons with the other. Behind 
the chief on the right, are two figures, which from the feminine 
cast of their countenances appear to be women; one wears an 
extraordinary cap, and the other, whose hair falls in ringlets on 
her shoulders, makes an expressive motion with her right hand, as if 
she were saying, 44 Be silent/' Between the two principal figures, are 
introduced two very diminished beings, who do not reach higher than 
the knees of their colossal companions. In dress they differ mate¬ 
rially from each other, and one holds a long staff. To the left, on 
a fragment of the rock, is the bust of a figure, who also holds his 
hand in a beckoning and significant posture. The largest of these 
figures I reckoned to be ten feet in height; the small ones two feet 
eight inches. The whole of this is so much disfigured, that it is diffi¬ 
cult to ascertain its various and singular details. 
In the same recess, and to the left of this sculptured rock, forming 
an angle with it, is another monument in a much higher state of 
preservation; parts of it indeed have suffered so little, that they appear 
to be fresh at this day from the chissel. (Plate XX.) The same 
royal personage, so often represented with a globe on his head, 
and seated on horseback, here forms the principal character of the 
groupe. His face, indeed, has been completely destroyed by the 
Mahomedans, but the ornaments of his person and those of his 
horse, (more profusely bestowed on both, than on any of the similar 
figures which we had seen) are likewise more accurately preserved. 
They merit a particular description; because as the composition was 
probably designed to represent the King in his greatest state, every part 
