Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/343

 Domestic Architecture. 313 chamber, and used as a reception-room, where on state occasions the tribal chiefs assembled to hold solemn conclave with the king (1 Kings viii. 1, 2). The numerous apartments on the first tier received no light except through the open door. That they served as military stores seems pretty certain ; for we read in Isaiah that the arsenal was in the " house of the Forest " — the term being- synonymous with " house of Lebanon " — whilst it is formally stated in Kings that Solomon caused 300 shields, overlaid with plating of beaten gold, to be made for his body-guard. This of course is an Oriental figure of speech ; for the gold plating of the shields and the targets would represent too great a sum of money for a king of Israel, even if that king had been Solomon. But the entry is interesting, inasmuch as it closes with the following words : " And the king put the shields in the house of the forest " (1 Kings x. 16, 1 7). To the rear of this house was a second and smaller structure, consisting of two sections : a hypostyle chamber, with an open porch, the number and height of whose pillars are not specified, and the throne or judgment room, entirely lined with cedar wood. 1 The gallery was 50 cubits long, by 30 deep ; but what it may have lacked in amplitude was compensated by the lobby, which from the fact of its having been specially mentioned, must have been of a striking nature. It is probable that both chambers were on the same level as the corresponding division in the house of the forest ; the former serving as ante-room, where people waited their turn to be ushered into the august presence of their sovereign, who sat in state in the next apartment, be it to deliver judgment or to issue commands (Fig. 210). 2 Then came the domestic dwellings, ranged on two lines ; which must have covered a considerable area to accommodate the numerous household of Solomon (1 Kings vii. 8). The chrono- grapher was probably acquainted with the " Selamlik " or public portion of the building ; but as a matter of course he had never penetrated into the harem, the various portions of which he had only seen from the outside ; as, for instance, the kiosk, or house of the daughter of Pharaoh. 3 There is no reason to doubt that the three groups of structures specified by him succeeded each other 1 1 Kings vii. 6, 7. 2 We borrow Stade's plan of this building, which seems to be drawn from the data yielded by the text. s Loc. cit.