s: these comprised a yard, some half-dozen cells varying in size,
a kitchen, a well, and a door through which the servants could come and
go, without passing through the men's quarters. The whole description in
no way corresponds with the marvellous ideal of an Oriental palace which
we form for ourselves: the apartments are mean and dismal, imperfectly
lighted by the door or by some small aperture timidly cut in the
ceiling, arranged so as to protect the inmates from the heat and
dust, but without a thought given to luxury or display. The walls were
entirely void of any cedar woodwork inlaid with gold, or panels of
mosaic such as we find in the temples, nor were they hung with dyed or
embroidered draperies such as we moderns love to imagine, and which we
spread about in profusion, when we attempt to reproduce the interior of
an ancient house or palace.*

* Mons. de Sarzec expressly states that he was unable to
find anywhere in the palace of Gudea "the slightest trace of
any coating on the walls, either of colour or glazed brick.
The walls appear to have been left bare, without any
decoration except the regular joining of the courses of
brickwork." The wood panelling was usually reserved for the
temples or sacred edifices: Mons. de Sarzec found the
remains of carbonized cedar panels in the ruins of a
sanctuary dedicated to Ningirsu. According to Mons. Heuzey,
the wall-hangings were probably covered with geometrical
designs, similar to tho"e formed by the terra-cotta cones on
the walls of the palace at Uruk; the inscriptions, however,
which are full of minute details with regard to the
construction and ornamentation of the temples and palaces,
have hitherto contained nothing which would lead us to infer
that hangings were used for mural decoration in Chaldoa or
Assyria.

The walls had to remain bare for the sake of coolness: at the most they
were only covered with a coat of white plaster, on which were painted,
in one or two colours, some scene of civil or religious life, or troops
of fantastic monsters struggling with one another, or men each with a
bird seated on his Wrist. The furniture was not less scanty than the
decoration; there were mats on the ground, coffers in which were kept
the linen and wearing apparel, low beds inlaid with ivory and metal and
provided with coverings and a thin mattress, copper or wooden stands to
support