FIFTH BAS-RELIEF. 
551 
horse of the balloon-crowned personage has a muzzle like the 
other, and a similar acorn-tassel and chain. 
Behind this last horseman, stands a beardless youth, wearing 
a high round-topped cap, on which is some distinguishing mark. 
He holds a fly-fan of horse-hair near the head of the figure 
before him. The mark, and the smooth chin, seem to place 
him in the same rank with the figure half covered with the 
scroll in the bas-relief of Shapoor. Though on a spot where 
two dead bodies lie, as if on a field of battle, these figures have 
every sign of peace in themselves ; nothing like a sword, or a 
belt that has held one, appearing about their persons. On the 
breast of the horses, just above the shoulder of the animal, are 
inscriptions, of which I shall speak hereafter, in the Greek and 
Pehlivi characters, but both rather defaced. The length of the 
excavation is twenty-one feet; the whole of the bas-relief, which 
is of white marble with a considerable polish, being in the most 
perfect state of preservation. The style of the sculpture is 
heavy, but elaborate, and finished with much care. It differs 
totally from the preceding four I have described, being in an 
extremely dry taste compared with them, and very deficient in 
grace and proportion. The horses are much too small for their 
riders, and clumsy as Flanders mares. From every detail and 
execution of the piece, it appears to have been the first excavation 
of the sort made in the rock, after the production of those 
specimens of remote antiquity on the mountain above. 
The subject of the bas-relief seems historical, interwoven with 
allegorical references; and the sense of the inscriptions, as 
translated, illustrate the design of the sculptor. It is not a 
matter of any surprise to find inscriptions of that era written in 
both languages; Greek and native artists evidently having been 
