Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/107

 of the sculptured terrace by the omission of the broken line of sculpture, of which one half still remains above the other two. He has also had the temerity to represent the figures as though they were perfect, though he states in the text that the larger number on one side are so mutilated that they are without their heads. It would be impossible in his drawings to distinguish the different nationalities; it is difficult even to detect the 'Kaffir,' as he calls the famed Ethiopian.

On the other hand, the description he has given of the ruins has the merit of being more concise than that of Chardin, and we follow him throughout with clear-ness. He was disposed to accept the theory that the edifice was originally a temple, the seat of an ecclesiastical chief, comparable to the Roman Pontiff, who had gradually passed into a secular prince. He did not doubt that it finally became the residence of the Achaemenian King's, and was the edifice destroyed by Alexander.

It is not necessary to refer to many of his criticisms. He had little hesitation in deciding that the animals on the Porch were griffins (licornes), and that a double griffin ornamented the capital of the columns. Besides griffins, he fancied he discerned women among the bas-reliefs, especially in the Palace of Xerxes. He, however, made the important observation that in the Columnar Edifice or Hall of Xerxes the columns of the central cluster are four feet lower than those at the