592 
RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS. 
carved in roses. We find the hair ranged over the forehead 
in the usual style of the ancient Persian kings; the beard, also, 
is disposed in the way peculiar to royalty ; but the hinder hair 
lies in long and close curls round the back of the neck, totally 
differing from any of the bas-reliefs in other parts of the ruins. 
From the top of the crown to the hoof, the animal measures 
nineteen feet. Three compartments of incription are cut in the 
wall over his body. 
This is the only specimen known to exist in Persia, where the 
human and bestial form are conjoined; in vain I sought for 
any trace of a similar union ; and I have been assured by the 
most unquestionable authorities, that no other can be discovered, 
either here, or in any other part of the kingdom. Various 
opinions have been conceived of its meaning; and amongst 
others, Mons. Anquetil du Peron advances very cogent reasons 
for supposing it to be a symbolical representation of Noah, the 
second patriarch of mankind, the great legislator of the earth, 
and instructor in all the arts tending to human comfort. Mons. 
de Sacey considers it to be the emblem of Kaiamurs, the first 
sovereign of the Paishdadian dynasty, (whom the Zeenut-ul- 
Tuarikh derives as third in descent from Noah ;) and he draws 
the name Kaiamurs from Gaw-i-mird , bull-and-man. But it is not 
less interesting to observe how this singular hieroglyphic might 
be attributed to Cyrus himself, whose empire over the East was 
prophesied by Ezekiel, under almost the same figure, upwards 
of fifty years before his accession. The prophet beholds in a 
vision, the symbolical images of the four great empires which 
are to succeed each other until the coming of the Messiah ; and 
he thus expresses himself: “ And their feet were straight feet; 
the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they 
