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The whole visible surface of the coffin is covered with a thick glazing of rich green enamel on the exterior, and of blue within the aperture. The material of which the coffins are composed is yellow clay, mixed with straw and half-baked”

Mr. Loftus made a second journey to Warka in order to obtain a specimen of these extraordinary coffins for the British Museum. From the very friable nature of these vessels, this was a task of extreme difficulty, but ingeniously overcome.

In one of the terraces of Buwáriyya three vaults were discovered; one measuring 13 inches by 10 inches square, and 21 inches in depth, was filled with earth and the fragments of two large sepulchral vases, without any traces of their original contents. From subsequent discoveries at Sinkara, Mr. Loftus concludes that the bones of the dead were in the above cases deposited in vases and placed in the vaults; after which the private records and property of the deceased were arranged over them, and the whole submitted to the flames :

"The locality at Warka, which furnished the most valuable and interesting fruits of my researches, was a small detached mound, forty feet high, situated about half-a-mile south-east of the Buwáriyya. One of my overseers picked up from its summit a few fragments of ornamental plaster, which induced me to make excavations. I was soon rewarded by the discovery of a chamber, measuring forty feet long and twenty-eight feet wide, the mud walls of which stood only four feet high, and had been covered with coloured plaster. It was a perfect museum of architectural scraps, of a highly instructive and curious character. The unbaked brick floor was literally piled with broken columns, capitals, cornices, and innumerable relics of rich internal decoration, which exhibited undoubted symptoms of Greek and Roman influence on Oriental taste. The smaller objects were wholly plaster; but the larger consisted of moulded bricks, thinly coated with white plaster; many of them were fantastically coloured. One large fragment of cornice bore, among other devices, a spirited crouching griffin, which, at first sight, reminded me of the similar figures sculptured on a frieze in an inner chamber at the remarkable ruins of Al Hádr, near Mosul. This emblem was accompanied by the well-known Greek echinus moulding; but the cornice was purposely destroyed by some strange Arabs, who visited the mounds between the intervals of excavation.

"Three of the capitals are Ionic; but the proportions of the volutes and other members are peculiar. A fourth description of small capital has peculiarities of its own, suggestive of the later Byzantine style. A large and elegant leaf rises from the necking, and bends under each corner of the abacus. Springing from behind a smaller curled leaf in the centre, is the bust of a human figure wearing the same preposterous head-dress which is characteristic of the slipper coffins and Parthian coins.

"No columns were discovered to correspond with the larger capitals; but the walls were liberally adorned with small Ionic half-columns, with half-smooth, half-fluted shafts, which were highly coloured. The lower and smooth surfaces were diagonally striped with red, green, yellow and black; the flutes being painted black, red, and yellow alternately, while the level ridges between them are left white. In some cases the flutes were quartered with the same colours.

"Among the débris of smaller articles were bases of columns,-friezes, with bunches of grapes alternating with leaves,-gradines, resembling those on the castles of the Nineveh bas-reliefs, but ornamented at the base with a conspicuous six-rayed star in a circle, fragments of open screen-work, with complicated geometric designs of different patterns on the opposite sides (these are very peculiar, and differ materially from the arabesque,)-and flakes of painted plaster from the walls, with fragments of small statuettes, coloured, and sometimes gilded."-(pp. 225, 226.)

It is to be hoped that at some period not very distant, excavations may be resumed among the mounds of Chaldæa. If those of Warka have failed in yielding bas-reliefs and objects of a higher class of interest, like those obtained from the palaces of Assyria, they have at least afforded abundance of important information on two subjects of which we were in

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comparative ignorance; viz. Babylonian architecture, and the mode of burial during twenty centuries preceding the Christian era. Doubtless Warka will yet yield memorials and relics second to none in interest and value. From them we may look for much additional light, not only concerning the early Chaldæan and Achæmenian periods, but also with relation to its Greek and Parthian occupiers down to about the Christian era. Having concluded his excavations at Warka, Mr. Loftus determined on visiting the neighbouring ruins of Sinkara, distant fifteen miles to the south-east. They stand on the extreme verge of the broad desert ridge, which intervenes between the inundations of the Euphrates on the West, and the marshes of the Shat-el-Káhr on the East, and consist of a low circular platform about 4 miles in circumference, rising gradually from the level of the plain to a central mound, the highest point of which is seventy feet, and is distinctly seen from Warka and the Euphrates. Upon cursory inspection it is evident that these ruins all belong to one period, and that no later races of different origin have built upon the edifices erected by the ancient people. There are no coins, glass, or glazed pottery, as at Warka; but a uniform dull brown hue pervades everything about the place. The soil is almost impalpable. The excavations, disclosed tombs, and inscriptions on the bricks, fix the date of the upper part of the mound above the tombs as early as the time of Nebuchadnezzar, about 600 B.C. A brick was picked up with a legend of sixteen lines, bearing the name of Purna-Puriyas, who seems to have reigned about 1650 B.C. :

"If evidence were required that the early Chaldæans practised the rite of burial, Sinkara furnishes it beyond the shadow of a doubt. The whole area of the ruins is a cemetery! Wherever an excavation was made, vaults and graves invariably occurred, and the innumerable cuneiform records contained in them substantiate their undoubted antiquity. So numerous were the clay tablets, I almost arrived at the conclusion that the fine brown dust of the mounds resulted from their decomposition."

The upper chambers of the Sinkara tombs also yielded a few curious tablets of baked clay, which are not only interesting as exhibiting the state

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of the arts, but as illustrating the costume, occupation, and worship of the Chaldæans. The sculptures of the palaces of Nineveh were historical monuments, erected by the kings of Assyria to perpetuate their own exploits and greatness; but the people are only shewn as subservient to

the will of their monarch. In the little tablets from Sinkara is depicted the every-day life of the people, modelled by themselves, without any royal influence to produce the best works

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of the best artists. Rude as they are, these designs prove that the Chaldæans-if they had possessed stone for the purpose-could have executed sculptures equal, if not superior, to those of the Assyrians: :

"This tablet represents two figures, apparently boys, boxing, in the most approved fashion of the ring.' The positions taken by the figures are admirable. A third figure standing with his back to the combatants seems to appeal over a huge vase, much resembling those used in interring the dead, to a female (?) wearing a long garment and a turban. She is seated on a stool beating cymbals."

As soon as the antiquities collected by Mr. Loftus were despatched to England, Major Williams desired him to visit Susa, and endeavour to make excavations at the mounds which are well known to exist in that locality. Few places throughout the East are more replete with interest than that which is known to us by the various denominations of Shushan, Susa, Sús, or Shúsh. From the time of Cyrus, Susa became the chosen winter seat of the Persian kings, and was richly embellished by succeeding monarchs. Under the sway of the Achæmenian dynasty, it usurped the greatness of its former rivals, Nineveh and Babylon. Coins were struck there so late as A.D. 709, soon after which date the place seems to have been deserted in favour of adjoining towns which were rising into importance; and the history of its former greatness alone remained in the recitations of Persian poets, the exaggerated traditions of the people, and the vastness of its mounds:

"It was evident that some magnificent structures once existed at Susa, for the surface of the mounds was strewed with fragments of fluted columns, which had frequently attracted the notice of travellers. Excavations revealed two gigantic monolith bases of columns in situ, announcing the discovery of a palace of the ancient

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Persian monarchs at Susa, rivalling, if not surpassing, that at Persepolis in grandeur. The bases were bell-shaped, and richly carved, in representation of the inverted flower of a plant which we usually term the Egyptian lotus.

"None of the shafts remain erect at Susa-the inner phalanx of columns possessed square bases, while those of the outer groups were bell-shaped. Strewed in inextricable confusion among the monoliths were huge portions of the fallen columns ; these were so abundant that I was able to take correct measurements, and with Mr. Churchill's assistance, to restore the various details of one variety of compound capital, nearly identical with those in the external groups at Persepolis. This capital evidently consisted of four distinct parts, as shewn in the accompanying woodcut.'

They are probably intended to represent the pendent leaves of the datepalm, the opening bud of the lotus-flower, a series of double volutes, and certainly at the summit two demi-bulls, between whose necks passed the beams for the support of the roof. The total height of this compound capital was 28 feet. The similarity between the buildings of Persepolis and Susa is so great, that any peculiarity observable in the one equally illustrates the architecture of the other; there is therefore no necessity for dwelling further on the subject.

The details connected with his journey through, and sojourn in, Chaldæa are abundantly entertaining; the interest of the book never flags a moment. Amply illustrated with woodcuts, maps, and plans, Mr. Loftus has contributed a work scarcely second in interest to those of Mr. Layard.

SIAM".

SIAM is a country with which the English people have probably as little acquaintance, or sympathy, as any on the face of the globe. Its name has, indeed, been familiar in the mouths of the present generation, through the exhibition of that lusus naturæ, the "Siamese Twins," (who, however, had a Chinese father); and recently our newspapers have informed us that the Siamese politicians have become converted to free-trade doctrines, stamping their conversion by a commercial treaty (most liberally framed) with Great Britain. But beyond those isolated facts, little has been known or cared for Siam. If curiosity had been excited, the sources of information, it must be admitted, were but few and widely scattered: besides Mr. Crawfurd's Journal of his embassy, and a few articles in our Oriental periodicals, little had been contributed to our stock of information upon one of the most curious, interesting, and fertile portions of the Eastern world. Sir John Bowring's volumes form a timely contribution to our knowledge of this country and people. In addition to the results of his own personal knowledge and experience, he has made a resumé of the contributions of his predecessors in the field, both English and foreign, thereby placing us in possession of as complete a picture of this country and people as we can hope to obtain.

The native name of the kingdom of Siam is Thá, meaning the "Free," or Muang Thái," the Land of the Free." The modern name Siam is derived

"The Kingdom and People of Siam, with a Narrative of a Mission to that Country in 1855. By Sir John Bowring, F.R.S., Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China. 2 vols. 8vo." (London: John W. Parker & Son.)

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