arms, legs, and decapitated heads of the vanquished. Victory
once secured, he retraces his steps to bestow funeral
honours upon the dead.

[Illustration: 104.jpg PILING UP THE MOUND OF THE DEAD AFTER THE
BATTLE.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in
the Louvre. The bodies raised regularly in layers form an
enormous heap: priests or soldiers wearing loin-cloths mount
to its top, where they pile the offerings and the earth
which are to form the funerary mound. The sovereign,
moreover, has, in honour of the dead, consigned to execution
some of the prisoners, and deigns to kill with his own hand
one of the principal chiefs of the enemy.

The design and execution of these scenes are singularly rude; men and
beasts--indeed, all the figures--have exaggerated proportions, uncouth
forms, awkward positions, and an uncertain and heavy gait. The war ended
in a treaty concluded with Enakalli, vicegerent of Grishban, by which
Lagash obtained considerable advantages. Idingiranagin replaced the
stele of Meshilim, overthrown by one of Enakalli's predecessors, and
dug a ditch from the Euphrates to the provinces of Guedln to serve
henceforth as a boundary. He further levied a tribute of corn for the
benefit of the goddess Nina and her consort Ningirsu, and applied
the spoils of the campaign to the building of new sanctuaries for the
patron-gods of his city.

[Illustration: 105.jpg KING URNINA AND HIS FAMILY.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Louvre. Cf.
another bas-relief of the same king, p. 244; and for the
probable explanation of these pierced plaques, see p. 258 of
the present work.

His reign was, on the whole, a glorious and successful one. He conquered
the mountain district of Elam, rescued Uruk and Uru, which had both
fallen into the hands of the people of Gishban, organized an expedition
against the town of Az and killed its vicegerent, in addition to which
he burnt Arsua, and devastated the district of Mishime. He next directed
an attack against Zuran, king of Udban, and, by vanquishing this Prince
on the field of battle, he extended his dominion over nearly the whole
of Babylonia.

The prosperity of his dynasty was subjected to numerous and strange
vicissitudes. Whether it was that its resources were too feeble to
stand the exigencies and strain of war for any length of time, or that
intestine strife had b