656 
BAS-RELIEFS. 
king and his attendants, before mentioned, and which I shall 
now particularly describe. (Plate XLVIII.) The monarch is 
represented in the act of walking, and is accompanied by a 
couple of attendants. The face of his majesty is mutilated, but 
the air of his person is singularly stately and majestic. A long 
and venerable-looking beard is disposed with the nicest care 
upon his breast, and the abundant mass of hair which covers his 
neck, is not less scrupulously curled. His tiara has a smooth 
surface, but partakes of the general shape worn by his robed 
nobles and guards. In his right hand he carries a long thin 
staff, with an ornamented finishing at the top. Herodotus ob¬ 
serves, that the Babylonians made use of sticks in walking, with 
richly decorated heads carved in various figures. An apple, it 
is said, was the usual termination, on the sceptre or staff of the 
Persian kings ; but the ornament on this regal person’s staff, 
does not resemble that shape in the least. In his left hand he 
holds a lotos, the calix and leaves of which announce its name, 
without dispute. The broad belt and Median robe complete 
his raiment. His attendants follow: one carrying in both his 
hands an umbrella over the head of the great personage; while 
the other waves his fly-chaser in the same direction, grasping in 
his left hand what, probably, is intended for the royal handker¬ 
chief. These are clad in the long robe, with the metal fillet 
round their heads, and rings in their ears. The admirable taste 
and fine finish of this bas-relief, redoubled my regret at the de¬ 
molished state of the faces and hands ; the feet also are lost, by 
the rising heaps around, formed by the ruins of the rest of the 
building ; these, uniting with those of the mound on its western 
side, have connected the whole, by a regular slope, to the terrace 
below. That the principal personage here depicted, represents 
