The

Cilicians by the Persian Satrap of Lycia. The remains of this mysterious building are ranged in groups about the room; and the visitor will observe indications of the flow of the lines, and the artistic grace, which subsequently marked Grecian sculpture from every other on the face of the earth. Here it is not impossible to recognise the Greek mind: far below that of the decoration of the Parthenon, it is true; but yet elegant and thoughtful. The groups of sculpture marked (34—49) are the sculptures of the broader frieze which, it is conjectured, surrounded the base of the building. Here are represented a series of warlike encounters in which the Greek arms are prominent-their helmets, crests, and Argolic bucklers; while other soldiers are represented nearly nude, and in some instances wearing the Asiatic pointed cap. This frieze undoubtedly represents the Greeks at war with Asiatic tribes. fragments of the narrow frieze which bordered the upper part of the frieze are marked from 50 to 68. The first four fragments represent the attack of a town, supposed to be the Lycian town Xanthus. Here the besiegers may be observed scaling the wall, and the officers cheering on the men. The five following fragments represent various scenes of warfare between Greeks and Asiatics. Then a walled city is represented, with the heads of a besieged party looking over the ramparts; then a figure of a Satrap occurs (62), supposed to be that of the Persian conqueror of Lycia, Harpagus, who is screened with an umbrella held by a slave, which is the emblem of his sovereignty, and is in the act of receiving a deputation from the besieged city. The next two fragments represent a sally from the besieged town; and upon the 67th fragment is some carving supposed to illustrate the retreat of the besieged to their city. The groups marked (69, 70, 74)

are fragments of the capping-stones of the east front of the base, and columns and fragments of columns from the peristyle. Those groups, however, marked (75—84), which consist of the statues originally placed in the intercolumniations of the building, are figures of divinities, with various symbols at their feet, as the dolphin, the halcyon, &c., and are meant to represent, by the flow of the drapery, that they are flying through the air. They have been variously interpreted, but never satisfactorily; some authorities asserting that they were meant to celebrate the arrival of Latona at Xanthus, and others that they symbolise the great naval victory over Evagoras. Passing over one or two unimportant groups of fragments, the visitor should next examine the remains of the narrow frieze (95—109), upon which an entertainment is represented the guests, perfectly used to luxuries, reclining upon couches, and taking wine to the strains of female musicians; also, a sacrifice of various animals. Passing the coffers of the ceiling (106-109), the visitor should next examine the remains of another narrow frieze, where a Satrap is represented receiving presents; and bear and boar hunting The fragment marked (125) is the eastern pediment, sculptured in relief with various figures; and that marked (126) is half of the western pediment sculptured with figures of six foot-soldiers. The groups numbered (132–135) are fine specimens of Lycian sculpture: on the first a draped female figure is shown in rapid flight; and on the second, youths are shown bearing off women. The group marked (138) is one of the samples of the roof-tiles with which the building was covered in. Two crouching lions (139, 140), supposed to have occupied intercolumnar space in the building, are the last of the fragments. These

scenes occur.

fragments, however, together with Sir Charles's interesting model, and the landscape (also in the room), realise more vividly to the mind of the general spectator the ancient Xanthus, than all the other detached and solitary fragments. Near the two lions just mentioned are the paws of another lion, and a fragment, found near the Harpy Tomb, of a crouching warrior and bull. Having noticed these, the visitor may occupy himself for a few minutes with the fragments of Byzantine architecture (177-183). These remains were discovered amidst the ruins of a Christian village; and, it is conjectured, were buried by an earthquake. These objects being discussed, the visitor should repair to the glass case at the end of the room, and examine some small curiosities from the Xanthian Acropolis, which are placed therein. These consist chiefly of a Parian-marble torso of a Venus; the left elbow of a female, and the left side of a female head, in Parian marble, found built into the walls of the Acropolis; leaden and iron cramps found in the oldest sculptures of the Acropolis; four small lamps; vases; a cup; fragments of glass vessels; fragment of a vase of the Byzantine period, stamped with a cross; bronze vessels; lead grating for a drain pipe; a fragment of a terra cotta amphora, inscribed, in the Doric dialect, with the name of Hippocrates; fragments of painted cement from early Christian buildings-all found in the excavations made for the ruins of the building of which the model and fragments have lately been noticed. Some sickles, a leaden weight, fragments of glass windows, and terra cotta fragments, also included in the glass-case, were discovered among the ruins of the houses, buried by the fall of the great building. And in this case, also, are some curiosities from Pinara, including fragments of human bones, tiles, and cement,

all amalgamated by a deposit of lime filtering through the rock of a tomb; cement used to line a water cistern, and to block up the door of a rock-tomb. With an examination of these relics, the visitor will close his inspection of the Lycian remains, and proceed at once to the

ASSYRIAN REMAINS.

Having examined the monumental remains of the Egyptians and the ancient inhabitants of Persia, the visitor, in order to complete a general impression of the sculptures of remote antiquity, should now direct his attention to the remains recently discovered on the site of ancient Nineveh and Nimroud. Most readers have read something of the history of Assyria, of the effeminate Sardanapalus, of Semiramis, and of the more fabulous Ninus. These three names are the three landmarks of Assyrian history; and the long lapses of time which separate them are shrouded in mystery, and up to late years have been filled up only by fanciful histories but slenderly based on fact. Men have written confidently on the fall of the Assyrian empire, and of its invasion by the Medes; but the discrepancies of rival authorities, who differ as much as ten centuries in their dates according to Mr. Layard, show how insufficient were the materials upon which they pretended to found histories. Where was the site of Babylon? where that of the renowned Nineveh ? These questions were often mooted by antiquaries. Mounds of earth were long observed by travellers in Assyria and Babylonia; and one of these, which was formed by a mass of ruined brickwork, was heralded to the world as the remains of the tower of Babel! But the ruins of the great Assyrian capital

were for a long time unobserved. For many years had travellers to modern Mosul looked with wondering eyes at gigantic mounds of earth that lay opposite the city. The first traveller who did more than take a cursory view of these mysterious hillocks was Mr. Rich, who, on his way from Kurdistan to Baghdad in 1820, crossed the river, and arrived at the mounds; visited what the inhabitants asserted to be Jonah's tomb on the summit of one of them; saw inscribed relics in the houses of the adjacent village. Among the fragments on the largest mound he picked up some bricks with cuneiform* characters upon them, and fragments of pottery; and on a subsequent occasion he found a small stone chair. He left these mounds without suspecting that he had been treading above the palaces of the ancient Assyrian monarchs—that he had been over ancient Nineveh. But the ground was too fruitful in remote traditions to remain altogether unexplored in this century. The lands watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the early Asiatic colonies of Scripture were founded, and where Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, flourished and founded Babel, and whence, according to Scripture, Asshur went forth to build Nineveh, are interesting ground. Of these great Assyrian towns it was natural to seek some ruins. Of all these cities, however, founded so far back before authentic history begins, only Nineveh, which flourished many centuries later, and of which we have always had more authentic histories than those of any other Assyrian city, attained to a comparatively modern prosperity and renown. The records of this magnificent city, from which historians have derived

The cuneiform character, which was used in every part of Asia Minor, up to the time of Alexander the Great, consists of a series of wedges or accents variously combined, as, '' 1.