Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/291

 Furniture and Ornament about the Temtle. 261 of the text, we incline for the latter, which as a consequence must be extended to the brazen sea. The relative depth of these vessels and the economy of their wheels cannot be surmised from the text, which is sufficiently vague to admit of readings widely different one from the other. The restoration we propose, better than any other, helps the reader to understand their ingenious arrangement ; it has, moreover, the no slender merit of yielding convenient surfaces for the ornamentation specified by the chrono- grapher. Not one among the many archaeologists, who have tried Fig. 173. — Sacrificial Altar. Mangeant. their hand at restoring these objects, has given a thought as to the way the impetus was to be brought about in order to set the vessel in motion. All seem to suppose that the sakain, or water- carrier, pressed upon the uprights tightly fixed to the box. But this would have given him no control over the motion of the apparatus, which, when the recipient was full of liquid, must have been pretty heavy. The constant friction, moreover, would have worn the delicate ornament on the sides. To obviate so untoward a contingency, we have imagined sturdy poles of metal, attached to the lid of the rectangular box and the circular vessel by iron