PALACE OF FORTY PILLARS. 
617 
which is thrown carelessly over the left shoulder, and reaches 
nearly down to his sandalled feet. His hair is uncurled, and 
bound with a fillet. The rest of the party are almost naked, 
their only covering being a small piece of garment resembling a 
short petticoat, which is confined on the hip by a thick roll of 
some sort of stuff or linen. The first of them bears on his 
shoulders a pair of large scales, which contain four small bottles. 
The next man brings four more bottles, set in two basins. He 
is followed by one who guides an animal, which I immediately 
recognised to be the gour or wild ass, from its perfect re¬ 
semblance to the fine creature of the sort I had pursued in my 
way hither. Another attendant stands behind it, while the last 
person in the group brings up the rear with a pair of implements 
like mallets in his hands. Here end all the remains of the bas- 
reliefs on this division of the edifice, by which we may collect 
any idea of what might have been the subject of the whole re¬ 
presentation. Having noticed, some pages back, a considerable 
resemblance between certain objects in these successive groups, 
and the first grand procession of the great founder of the empire, 
I shall offer an abstract of Xenophon’s account of the solemnity, 
before I proceed to my own remarks on the subject. 
“ But now,” says the historian, “ we will relate how Cyrus 
first marched in grand procession out of the palace; for the 
majesty of this procession seems to have been one of the means 
by which he held his government in such high consideration. 
First, therefore, he arrayed himself, and his commanders, and 
other chosen officers, in the splendid robes of the Medes, that 
they might all appear beautiful and noble. There stood first 
before the gates, four thousand guards, drawn up four in front, 
with lances in their hands; two thousand on each side of the 
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