PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS. 
601 
antiquities of Egypt, Syria, and India; and my only way of 
accounting for the consummate knowledge in one respect, and 
as conspicuous ignorance in the other, is, that the frequency 
of seeing the most minute dissections of the brute creation in 
the daily sacrifices; also the variety of their actions under 
seizure, of the tame; and of the wild, when hunting; would give 
to these sculptors of old, advantages that our artists can hardly 
attain ; while the superstition that universally prevailed against 
putting the hand on a dead man, prevented all insight into the 
laws of the human frame. 
On the inclined planes, corresponding with the slope of the 
stairs, runs a kind of frieze, on which is cut a line of figures, 
one foot nine inches in height, (Plate XXXVI.) answering in 
number with the steps, each one of which appears to form a 
pedestal for its relative figure. The figures themselves ap¬ 
pear a lengthened rank of those already described on each 
side of the blank tablet; and a similar range runs up the oppo¬ 
site slope. As the lines of figures are so disposed as to face 
each other, both looking towards one center-point, those on 
the right present their left sides to the spectator, by which 
the whole of the bow and quiver they carry, are more accurately 
seen. A narrow border of open roses, closely set, finishes the 
upper edge of the frieze, while an equal number of figures 
ornament the interior face of the same staircase. We can have 
no doubt, in casting our eyes over the numbers, the uniform 
dresses, arms, and positions of these men, that they are the 
stone effigies of the vast body guard, the Doryphores , which 
once held an actual station on these very spots. Cyrus, after 
the conquest of Babylon, chose ten thousand spearmen from 
amongst his faithful Persians, for this very purpose; and 
4 H 
VOL. I. 
