rched, the arch
extending through the whole thickness of the walls; it was semicircular,
and was constructed with bricks made wedge-shaped for the purpose. A
good deal of charred date-wood was found in the house, probably the
remains of rafters which had supported the roof.

The chambers at Abu-Shahrein were of sun-dried brick, with an internal
covering of fine plaster, ornamented with paint. In one the
ornamentation consisted of a series of red, black, and white bands, three
inches in breadth; in another was represented, but very rudely, the
figure of a man holding a bird on his wrist, with a smaller figure near
him, in red paint. The favorite external ornamentation for houses seems
to have been by means of colored cones in terra cotta, which were
imbedded in moist mud or plaster, and arranged into a variety of
patterns. [PLATE IX., Fig. 3.]

[Illustration: PLATE 10]

But little can be said as to the plan on which houses were built.
[Illustration: PLATE X., Fig. 2. ] The walls were generally of vast
thickness, the chambers long and narrow, with the outer doors opening
directly into them. The rooms ordinarily led into one another, passages
being rarely found. Squared recesses, sometimes stepped or dentated,
were common in the rooms; and in the arrangement of these something of
symmetry is observable, as they frequently correspond to or face each
other. The roofs were probably either flat-beams of palm-wood being
stretched across from wall to wall--or else arched with brick. No
indication of windows has been found as yet; but still it is thought that
the chambers were lighted by them, only they were placed high, near the
ceiling or roof, and thus do not appear in the existing ruins, which
consists merely of the lower portion of walls, seldom exceeding the
height of seven or eight feet. The doorways, both outer and inner, are
towards the sides rather than in the centre of the apartments--a feature
common to Chaldaean with Assyrian buildings.

Next to their edifices, the most remarkable of the remains which the
Chaldaeans have left to after-ages, are their burial-places. While
ancient tombs are of very rare occurrence in Assyria and Upper Babylonia,
Chaldaea Proper abounds with them. It has been conjectured, with some
show of reason, that the Assyrians, in the time of their power, may have
made the sacred land of Chai the general depository of their dead, much
in the same way as the Persians even now use K