'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎337] (368/582)

VISIT TO THE RUINS OF SHAPOOR.
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both the town and castle were destroyed in the first ages of Mo-
hammedism, when the zeal against infidels was at its highest.
A few yards east of this, and higher up in the cliff, is a large
tablet, divided into five compartments. In the central one above,
and fronting the spectator, sits the principal personage, whose most
remarkable distinction is the enormous bushes of hair on each
side of his head, and on the top. The style of it is exactly in
the fashion used to this day by the Samauli negroes, on the
coast of Adel, near the entrance of the Red Sea. With his right
hand he leans on a thick staff or spear, and his left is placed on
the hilt of a straight sword, on which he also rests, holding it per
pendicularly before him. The seat of this chief is not visible;
but he uses the European posture, like the old sitting figures at
Thebes and Persepolis.
In the left upper compartment are ten or twelve figures in
different costumes, mostly like those on the other side, and, as far
as I could distinguish, some of them seemed to be presenting
other persons to the chief.
In the upper right compartment were about the same num
ber of figures, in the same variety of dresses; but the design was
more distinct, as here guards are evidently bringing in prisoners,
some of whom are bound, others have their arms folded in an
attitude of defiance, and others again are preparing to resist the
force used to push them on, though they are unarmed.
In the left-hand lower compartment are an equal number of
persons, mostly in the same dresses, with bushy hair and long
swords, on which they are leaning with folded arms. At the head
of them, a groom with a close head-dress of a different kind from
any of the others, leads a small horse, which has a mattara, or
leathern water-bottle, hanging by its side, as now used in Persia,
and ready for the journey.
In the right-hand lower compartment is, first, an executioner
presenting in each hand a dissevered head to the chief above.
Behind him stands a little boy holding fast by his short garment.
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