PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS. 
609 
belongs to the dress in the opposite wing, and without a dagger. 
He bears a staff, though not so long a one as the robed 
personage of the same apparent office in the preceding group ; 
he has a collar also, to mark his consequence. With his left 
hand he leads forward the first figure in a group of six. This 
suite are habited in a sort of wrapping surtout, the arms naked 
from the hand to the elbow, where they meet a short sleeve ; 
a kind of cape with a tasseled end hangs over the shoulder, down 
on the breast. A helmet-like cap covers the head, from which 
depends a bag, very similar to what is worn in some parts of 
Kourdistan at the present day : shoes are on the feet. The 
little that is left unbroken away of the hair, appears in the bushy 
style of the Medes. Two of these men carry basins, and a 
third, something like a piece of stuff; the fourth, holds a staff in 
his right hand, and the end of a halter in his left, by which he 
leads a large bull; the fifth, walks by the side of the animal, 
with his left arm over the back, carefully guiding it; he also 
holds a staff, The bull is admirably sculptured, and the usual 
heavy sullen step of the animal is shewn to perfection. In this, 
the artist has displayed the earthly creature, having copied his 
original of the pasture with the most masterly fidelity ; while 
the colossal bulls, at the portals, present a contrast which fully 
shews his design in each. A glance at them conveys to the 
mind an image of the same animal, but of some supernatural 
order; making the like distinction between them and the natural 
bull, as the Greeks accomplished, when the gigantic Hercules 
was hewn from the quarry, giving more than mortal dignity to 
the common proportions of man. The same beau ideal is 
displayed in the forms of the lions ; and this very distinction, so 
happily shewn on the same platform, may be another argument for 
VOL. i. 4 i 
