598 
SCULPTURE ON THE ROCK 
the Sassanian dynasty, mentioned in a former part of my journal. 
This bas-relief consists of what may be called two groups, though 
evidently connected in one point of history. The group to our 
right, (when standing before it,) consists of a personage on 
horseback, whose horse trappings and own apparel shew the 
Sassanian fashion before described. His hair flows in the full 
bushy curls, a globular shape surmounts the helmet, which here 
has no other ornament, excepting the royal streamers. His 
left hand holds the reins, appearing at the same time to rest on 
the hilt of a long straight sword. Besides the waving ends from 
his head and neck, others stream from behind his back, as if 
attached to the robe which clasps over his chest. Similar ap¬ 
pendages float from his heels. With his extended right arm 
he grasps a ring or chaplet, either giving or receiving it from a 
person on foot, who stands at the head of the horse. This 
latter figure is bare-headed, his hair parted over the forehead, 
and thence devolving on each side in full and abundant curls. 
He is dressed in a short tunic reaching to his knees, and fas¬ 
tened round the waist with a band and a sword-belt. Loose 
trowsers, apparently fastened round his ankles, complete all that 
is now discernible in his apparel. The second group, but in 
order of march it precedes this, represents a similar action ; and, 
indeed, the chief difference in its details lie in the dress of the 
equestrian personage and the decorations of his horse. The capa¬ 
rison of this animal appears more splendid than the other’s, and 
the head of the rider without the usual Sassanian complement of 
hair, a singular circumstance in bas-reliefs of that era, and seems 
to mark him to be a prince rather in alliance with those sove¬ 
reigns, than one of their race. The drapery which incloses his 
leg and thigh is precisely like that on the figures in Plate XXIV. 
