are obviously Jews, and might be taken for the portraits of those, who, at this day, walk the streets of London. After them come three white men with smaller beards and curled whiskers, with double spreading plumes on their heads, tattooed, and wearing robes or mantles spotted like the skins of wild beasts; these are Persians or Chaldeans. Lastly, come four negroes with large circular ear-rings, and white petticoats supported by a belt over the shoulder; these are Ethiopians.

Among the hieroglyphics contained in M. Belzoni's drawings of this tomb, Dr. Young (secretary of the Royal Society) who is preeminently distinguished for his successful researches in archeology, succeeded in discovering the names of Nichao (the Necho of the Scriptures and Necos of Herodotus) and of Psammethis.

The narrative of the invasion of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and of the carrying of the ten tribes into captivity, which is related in 2 Kings xvii. 6. and xviii. 10. is confirmed by certain ancient sculptures, on the mountain of Be-Sitoon, near the borders of the ancient Assyria. For the knowledge of these antiquities, we are indebted to the persevering researches of Sir Robert Ker Porter, by whom they were first discovered and delineated, and who has thus described them.

After an account of some ancient Assyrian sculptures, which are ascribed to Semiramis, he thus proceeds: "At a point something higher up than the rough, gigantic forms just described, in a very precipitous cleft, there appeared to me a still more interesting piece of sculpture, though probably not of such deep antiquity. Even at so vast a height, the first glance showed it to be a work of some age accomplished in the art; for all here was executed with the care and fine expression of the very best at Persepolis. I could not resist the impulse to examine it nearer than from the distance of the ground, and would have been glad of queen Semiramis' stage of packs and fardles. To approach at all was a business of difficulty and danger; however, after much scrambling and climbing, I at last got pretty far up the rock, and finding a ledge, placed myself on it as firmly as I could, but still I was farther from the object of all this peril than I had hoped; yet, my eyes being tolerably long-sighted, and my glass more so, I managed to copy the whole sculpture with considerable exactness.

It contains fourteen figures, one of which is in the air. The first figure (to our left in facing the sculpture) carries a spear, and is in

his hair is in a similar fashion, and bound with a fillet. The second figure holds a bent bow in his left hand; he is in much the same dress, with the addition of a quiver slung at his back by a belt that crosses his right shoulder, and his wrists are adorned with bracelets. The third personage is of a stature much larger than any other in the group, a usual distinction of royalty in oriental description; and, from the air and attitude of the figure, I have no doubt he is made to designate the king. The costume, excepting the beard not being quite so long, is precisely that of the regal dignity, exhibited in the bas-reliefs of Nakshi-Roustam, and Persepolis: a mixture of the pontiff-king and the other sovereign personages, the robe being the ample vesture of the one, and the diadem the simple band of the other: a style of crown which appears to have been the most ancient badge of supremacy on either king or pontiff. But as persons of inferior rank also wore fillets, it seems the distinction between theirs and their sovereign's consisted in the material or color. For instance, the band, or cydaris, which formed the essential part in the old Persian diadem, was composed of a twined substance of purple and white; and any person below the royal dignity presuming to wear those colors, unsanctioned by the king, was guilty of a transgression of the law, deemed equal to high treason. The fillets of the priesthood were probably white or silver; and the circlets of kings, in general, simple gold. Bracelets are on the wrists of this personage, and he holds up his hand in a commanding or admonitory manner, the two fore-fingers being extended, and the two others doubled down in the palm an action also common on the tombs at Persepolis, and on other monuments just cited; his left hand grasps a bow of a different shape from that held by his officer, but exactly like the one on which the king leans in the bas-relief on the tomb at Nakshi-Roustam. This bow, together with the left foot of the personage I am describing, rests on the body of a prostrate man, who lies on his back, with outstretched arms, in the act of supplicating for mercy. This unhappy personage, and also the first in the string of nine which advance towards the king, are very much injured; however, enough remains of the almost defaced leader, when compared with the apparent condition of the succeeding eight, to show that the whole nine are captives. The hands of all are tied behind their backs, and the cord is very distinct which binds the neck of the one to the neck of the other, till the mark of bondage reaches to the last in the line. If it were also originally attached to the leader, the cord is now without trace there; his hands, however, are evidently in the same trammels as his

followers. The second figure in the procession has his hair so close to his head, that it appears to have been shaven, and a kind of caul covers it from the top of the forehead to the middle of the head. He is dressed in a short tunic, reaching no further than the knee; a belt fastens it round the waist; his legs are bare. Behind this figure is a much older person, with a rather pointed beard and bushy hair, and a similar caul covers the top of his head. He too is habited in a short tunic, with something like the trowser or booted appearance on the limbs, which is seen on some of the figures at Persepolis. In addition to the binding of the hands, the preceding figure, and this, are fastened together by a rope round their necks, which runs onward, noosing all the remaining eight in one string. This last described person has the great peculiarity attached to him, of the skirt of his garment being covered entirely with inscriptions in the arrow-headed character. Next follows one in a long vestment, with full hair, without the caul. Then another in a short, plain tunic, with trowsers. Then succeeds a second long vestment. After him comes one in a short tunic, with naked legs, and apparently a perfectly bald head. He is followed by another in long vestments. But the ninth, and last in the group, who also is in the short tunic and trowser, has the singularity of wearing a prodigious high-pointed cap; his beard and hair are much ampler than any of his companions, and his face looks of a greater age. In the air, over the heads of the centre figures, appears the floating Intelligence, in his circle and car of sunbeams, so. often remarked on the sculptures of Nakshi-Roustam and Persepolis.

Above the head of each individual in this bas-relief is a compartment with an inscription in the arrow-headed writing, most probably descriptive of the character and situation of each person. And immediately below the sculpture, are two lines in the same language, running the whole length of the group. Under these again the excavation is continued to a considerable extent, containing eight deep and closely written columns in the same character. From so much labor having been exerted on this part of the work, it excites more regret that so little progress has yet been made toward deciphering the char

acter.

The design of this sculpture appears to tally so well with the great event of the total conquest over Israel, by Salmaneser, king of Assyria, and the Medes, that I venture to suggest the possibility of this basrelief having been made to commemorate that final achievement. Cer

which took place in a second attack on the nation, when considered, seem to confirm the conjecture into a strong probability. The first expedition into Samaria, the country of the ten tribes, was led thither by Arbaces, (the Tiglath-pileser of the Scriptures,) twenty years anterior to the one to which I would refer this bas-relief. Arbaces undertook the first invasion at the instigation of Ahaz, king of Judah; who subsidized the Assyrian monarch, to avenge him by arms on his harassing neighbors, Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, who had confederated against him. Arbaces completely reduced the latter kingdom, slaying its king in battle, and making slaves of its people. He then entered those parts of the dominions of Pekah which bordered on Syria; and laying waste the whole east of Jordan, carried away captive the chief of the people inhabiting the towns of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. Having marched back with his spoil, 'he planted the Israelites in Media, and his Syrian prisoners on the banks of the Tigris. Soon after this fatal invasion, Pekah, king of Israel, was destroyed in a conspiracy by Hosea; who, having murdered his master reigned in his stead. About this time Arbaces (Tiglath-pileser) died, and was succeeded by his son Salmaneser, who, as soon as he was settled on his throne, went over into Syria, and thence falling upon the remainder of Israel, made a treaty with Hosea, allowing him to be king, and sparing the people, on condition that he paid him tribute, and acknowledged his country the vassal of Assyria. This took place about ten years after the expedition of Tiglath-pileBut in the course of a very few years more, Hosea was spirited up by So-Sabacan, king of Egypt, to attempt throwing off the yoke of Assyria, by refusing to pay the customary tribute. In chastisement of this rebellion, Salmaneser marched a large army into Samaria, and overthrowing all opposed to him, took Hosea captive, shut him up, and bound him, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (2 Kings, xviii. 11.) In turning from this account in the Scriptures, to the sculpture on the rock, the one seems clearly to explain the other. In the royal figure, I see Salmaneser, the son of the renowned Arbaces, followed by two appropriate leaders of the armies of his two dominions, Assyria and Media, carrying the spear and the bow. Himself rests on the great royal weapon of the east, revered from earliest time as the badge of supreme power, Behold I do set my bow in the cloud. Besides he tramples on a prostrate foe; not one that is slain, but one who is a captive; this person not lying stretched out and motionless, but extending his arms in supplication. He must

ser.

have been a king, for on none below that dignity would the haughty foot of an eastern monarch condescend to tread. Then we see approach nine captives, bound, as it were, in double bonds, in sign of a double offence. We may understand this accumulated transgression on recollecting that on the first invasion of Israel, by Tiglath-pileser, he carried away only part of three tribes; and on the second, by Salmaneser, he not only confirmed Hosea on the throne, but spared the remaining people. Therefore on this determined rebellion of king and people, he punishes the ingratitude of both, by putting both in the most abject bonds, and bringing away the whole of the ten tribes into captivity; or at least, the principal of the nation, in the same manner, probably, as was afterwards adopted by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, with regard to the inhabitants of Judea: he carried away all from Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives; and all the craftsmen and smiths; none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land. (2 Kings, xxiv. 14.) Besides, it may bear on our argument, to remark, that including the prostrate monarch, there are precisely ten captives, which might be regarded as the representatives, or heads, of each tribe, beginning with the king, who, assuredly would be considered as the chief of his; and ending with the aged figure, at the end, whose high cap may have been an exaggerated representation of the mitre worn by the sacerdotal tribe of Levi: a just, punishment of the priesthood at that time, which had debased itself by every species of idolatrous compliance with the whims, or rather wickedness of the people, in the adoption of Pagan worship. Hence, "Having all walked in the statutes of the heathen, the Lord rejected Israel, and delivered them into the hand of the spoilers." Doubtless, the figure with the inscription on his garments, from the singularity of the appendage, must have been some noted personage in the history of the event; and, besides, it seems to designate a striking peculiarity of the Jews, who were accustomed to write remarkable sentences of old, in the form of phylacteries, on different parts of their raiment. What those may mean, which cover the garment of this figure, we have no means of explaining, till the diligent researches of the learned may be able to decipher the arrow-headed character, and then a full light would be thrown on the whole history by expounding the tablets over every head. If the aerial form above were ever intended to represent the heavenly apparition of a departed king, which is the opinion of some, that of the great Arbaces might appear here with striking propriety,