672 
COMBATS OF THE 
Their scale is colossal, and the sculpture in a style of answering 
magnificence. The man who contends with the animals, is 
usually called the Pontiff-king ; a title which, in my mind, forms 
a clear text for the explanation of the whole. The first bas- 
relief in which we find him on these walls, is on one of the 
door-ways in the western face of the building. (Plate LII.) He 
is represented as a personage of a singularly dignified mien, clad 
in long draperied robes, but with the arms perfectly bare. His 
hair, which is full and curled, is bound with a circlet or low 
diadem ; and his sweeping, pointed beard, is curled at different 
heights, in the style that was worn by majesty alone. He is in 
the act of grasping with his left hand, the strong single horn 
that grows out of the forehead of his antagonist, while he thrusts 
his short sword, or dagger, composedly, but firmly, into the 
animal’s body. The creature is a monstrous combination of a 
lion, in body and limbs, with the head and neck of an eagle ; 
and is covered with immense plumage, lying like scale-armour, 
half-way down its back; representing something like our com¬ 
mon ideas of a griffin. Though struck in a vital part, the beast 
appears to be rampantly opposing the death his adversary seems 
so calmly inflicting. 
The corresponding sculpture of the same hero, on the portal 
to the east, differs in nothing but the quadruped ; which pre¬ 
sents a union of forms completely strange to a European, our 
most abstruse allegorising heralds, never having invented any 
thing like its image to charge our shields or support them. 
(Plate LIII.) The head seems to be that of a wolf; the fore¬ 
legs and body, those of a lion ; the hinder legs, from their joints, 
are certainly those of an eagle; the neck is scaled, or feathered, 
with a prickly mane, and it has wings which stretch nearly to 
