BAS-RELIEFS. 
706 
valley ; and following the foot of the mountain for two miles 
farther, arrived at a clear and copious spring, the ripple and 
lucidity of which, refreshing the parched and exhausted senses 
after so unsheltered a heat, might well excuse the dream of a ce¬ 
lestial nymph in the fountain, and that her smile shone in the 
glancing waters. Just over this delightful spring, a range of 
sculptures presented themselves, cut in the rock. On drawing 
near, I found them to have been works of the Sassanian age, but 
much inferior to those at Nakshi-Roustam. Some of these are 
little more than commencements of their subjects. The most 
finished stands first for observation, (Plate LVII.) and consists of 
two figures; one is a woman of a graceful outline, clothed in 
drapery of peculiar lightness and delicacy ; a large veil, modestly 
held by her left hand, envelops her figure, while she stretches out 
the right towards her companion. He is dressed in the royal style 
of the formerly described Sassanian bas-reliefs, but without the 
customary flowing badges of kingly rank: and presents her 
with something like a flower. 
The remainder of the range comprises two more sculptures, 
both containing effigies of a king with a profusion of curls, the 
globular crown, a collar, and ear-rings ; but the whole so ill 
executed, I did not deem them worth the further risk of stop¬ 
ping, under the fierce sun, to sketch their contents. My guides 
told me there were no more bas-reliefs in the valley; and turning 
from these with some disappointment, my attention was next 
engaged by the valley itself; the country appeared in higher 
cultivation here than nearer Shiraz; stretching on to the east, 
in vineyard, harvest, and village scenery. The grapes grow to 
a size and fulness hardly to be matched in other climates; and 
the juice expressed from them produces the celebrated wine of 
