SECOND BAS-RELIEF. 
537 
hope alive, and love will do the rest.’ The old man engaged to 
lesson his daughter ; and the young woman acted up so exactly 
to what she was enjoined, that the enamoured prince soon be¬ 
came all that his father wished and the nation hoped.”—And 
afterwards, of course, making her his wife, when he came to the 
throne on the death of Baliaram, the name of Yezdijird the 
Second was not inferior in renown, for wisdom and valour, to any 
of the greatest of his race. Indeed, he was so beloved in the 
army, as to receive the title of Sipahdest, or the Soldier s Friend. 
For the precise dates of these sovereigns’ reigns, I refer my 
readers to the table at the beginning of the volume. 
The next bas-relief (Plate XX.) is a few paces from the pre¬ 
ceding; and, in like manner, weeds and other accidental accu¬ 
mulations, crumbling into dust for ages, have blocked up half 
the surface of the sculpture. It represents a combat between 
two horsemen ; and has been designed with great fire, and 
executed in a style very superior to the preceding one. The 
proportions of the figures are good, and every thing pro¬ 
claims it to have been the work of a different hand. Hence 
its general mutilation is doubly to be regretted, on account of 
the finer specimen of the art at that period, and as a valuable 
acquisition to elucidate the military costume of the era. The 
most conspicuous figure is in the act of charging his opponent 
with a spear, accompanied with considerable grace of contour, 
and a striking harmony of action in every part of his body. A 
winged helmet protects his head, between which feathered or¬ 
naments rises the oval mass, already described in the head-dress 
of the monarch in the former bas-relief. From this also de¬ 
volves long bands, whose floating folds are much better disposed. 
To each shoulder an ornament is attached of the shape, and in 
the proportion, of large pine-apples; and another of the same 
3 z 
VOL. I. 
