st as eccentric as the preceding. Two large open-mouthed jars (a and
b), shaped like the largest of the water-jars at present in use at
Baghdad, are taken, and the body is disposed inside them with the usual
accompaniments of dishes, vases, and ornaments. [PLATE XII. Fig. 2.]
The jars average from two and a half feet to three feet in depth, and
have a diameter of about two feet; so that they would readily contain
a full-sized corpse if it was slightly bent at the knees.

Sometimes the two jars are of equal size, and are simply united at their
mouths by a layer of bitumen (dd); but more commonly one is slightly
larger than the other, and the smaller mouth is inserted into the larger
one for a depth of three or four inches, while a coating of bitumen is
still applied externally at the juncture. In each coffin there is an
air-hole at one extremity (c) to allow the escape of the gases generated
during decomposition.

Besides the coffins themselves, some other curious features are found in
the burial-places. The dead are commonly buried, not underneath the
natural surface of the ground, but in extensive artificial mounds, each
mound containing a vast number of coffins. The coffins are arranged side
by side, often in several layers; and occasionally strips of masonry,
crossing each other at right angles, separate the sets of coffins from
their neighbors. The surface of the mounds is sometimes paved with
brick; and a similar pavement often separates the layers of coffins one
from another. But the most remarkable feature in the tomb-mounds is
their system of drainage. Long shafts of baked clay extend from the
surface of the mound to its base, composed of a succession of rings two
feet in diameter, and about a foot and a half in breadth, joined together
by thin layers of bitumen. [PLATE XII., Fig. 3.] To give the rings
additional strength, the sides have a slight concave curve and, still
further to resist external pressure, the shafts are filled from bottom to
top with a loose mass of broken pottery. At the top the shaft contracts
rapidly by means of a ring of a peculiar shape, and above this ring are a
series of perforated bricks leading up to the top of the mound, the
surface of which is so arranged as to conduct the rain-water into these
orifices. For the still more effectual drainage of the mound, the
top-piece of the shaft immediately below the perforated bricks, and also
the first rings, are full of small hole