Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/75

 Opposite is a prisoner in chains, who he conjectures may be Daniel or Croesus. Beneath are six ranks of guards carrying spikes. Such is the first detailed account we have of the Hall of the Hundred Columns, and the elaborate sculptures with which it is adorned. It is remarkable that the accumulation of rubbish should have been so great that Herbert says 'tis presumed that the greatest part of the pile was vaulted underground'; and that, according as he burrowed laboriously through the débris each of its great doors should appear to him like vaulted chapels.

The hill that overhangs the platform on the southeast is shown by the drawing to be covered by a wonderful work of art. Four rows of figures support a stage whereon we observe a kneeling figure: but the serpent is now seen grovelling upon the ground, and the centipede of the earlier edition has developed into 'a demon of as uncouth and ugly a shape as well could be imagined.' 'It is of a gigantic size. . . discovering a most dreadful visage twixt man and beast. This monster has seven several arms.' He now treats us to three lines of inscriptions 'for better demonstration, which nevertheless whiles they cannot be read, will in all probability like the Mene Tekel without the help of a Daniel hardly be interpreted.' He agrees with Della Valle that each character might represent a word—or at least a syllable. He also agrees with the same authority that the writing ran from left to right, but in the sample he gives us, two or three characters are placed upside down which, if they had fallen under Della Valle's notice in that position would have entirely upset his argument from their 'posture and tendency.' Herbert compared the characters with 'twelve several