"معاملات الجمعية الجغرافية في بومباي، من يناير ١٨٤٧ حتى مايو ١٨٤٩. تحرير السكرتير. المجلد VIII." [‎٣‎٠‎٢] (٤٩٦/٤١١)

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pall that enshrouds the early history of the world. The excavated relics
from the Assyrian cities of Khorsabad and Nimroud are already begin
ning to unfold to the master mind that wrought out the purport of these
fragments of Darius Hystaspes, a narrative of events connected with that
sera; and the extensive plains of Babylonia and Susiana yet contain
entombed in their numerous mounds a vast heap of archaic legends
that would further enrich the materials of the historian.
The portion of these demi-reliefs of Darius that partakes not of the
hieratic style of sculpture, may be considered as a good specimen of the
age in which he lived. The art at that time in Greece * began to as
sume a degree of perfection that had been but partially developed in the
previous century, and which had been kept back by a too strict adhe
rence to conventional forms. As we possess no information relative to the
advancement of this art among the Medes and Persians, we must natu
rally ascribe the execution of the sculptured group to the ingenuity of
the Grecian artists that may have been either captured m war or have
been in search of iconic employment in the adjacent territories.
The forms of Darius and his attendant guards display, indeed, an
artistic merit that is wanting in the more massive sculptures of Nimroud
and Khorsabad, but are deficient in grace and execution when compared
with the bas-reliefs composing the zoological tableaux met with on the
walls of the Tak-i-Bostan. A peculiar care has been evidently exercised
in the performance of the whole work, for where the rock has exhibited
fissures or decay, a piece has been ingeniously substituted. In the
figure of the king, one of these pieces is observed as morticed into the
right shoulder ; and in the body of the last of his attendants a simihu
piece has been abstracted, leaving the lead, wherewith it was clamped,
still attached to the bottom and sides of the vacuity. A sacrilegious desne
to ascertain if any coins existed in the person of the monarch induced
me to attempt the removal of the piece inserted in the shoulder. I had
reached the summit of two ladders, which were lashed together, and
planted nearly perpendicular against the face of the rock, and was busily
employed with the hammer and chisel on my desecrating task. Beta
hands were thus occupied. An unfair blow delivered in my awkw ar.
position, caused the chisel to slip, and another instant would have
consigned me to the depths below had I not fortunately grasped the u
* Smith’s Greek and Roman Antiquities. See Statuary of H. Period, betwe
50th and 70th Olympiads, 5U0 to 4o0 B. C.