e stringed instruments of Ionia; Syrian kettle-drums
and cymbals, the shells and drums of the Arians from the mouth of the
Indus, and the loud notes of the Bactrian battle-trumpets. But above
all these resounded the rejoicing shouts of the Babylonian multitude,
subjugated by the Persians only a few short years before, and yet, like
all Asiatics, wearing their fetters with an air of gladness so long as
the fear of their tyrant was before their eyes.

The fragrant odors, the blaze of color and sparkling of gold and jewels,
the neighing of the horses, and shouts and songs of human beings, all
united to produce a whole, at once bewildering and intoxicating to the
senses and the feelings.

The messengers had not been sent up to Babylon empty-handed. Beautiful
horses, huge elephants and comical monkeys; rhinoceroses and buffaloes
adorned with housings and tassels; double-humped Bactrian camels with
gold collars on their shaggy necks; waggon-loads of rare woods and
ivory, woven goods of exquisite texture, casks of ingots and gold-dust,
gold and silver vessels, rare plants for the royal gardens, and foreign
animals for the preserves, the most remarkable of which were antelopes,
zebras, and rare monkeys and birds, these last being tethered to a tree
in full leaf and fluttering among the branches. Such were the offerings
sent to the great king of Persia.

They were the tribute of the conquered nations and, after having
been shown to the king, were weighed and tested by treasurers and
secretaries, either declared satisfactory, or found wanting and
returned, in which case the niggardly givers were condemned to bring a
double tribute later.

[At the time of which we are writing, the kings of Persia taxed
their kingdom at whatever time and to whatever extent seemed good in
their own eyes. Cambyses' successor, Darius, was the first to
introduce a regular system of taxation, in consequence of which he
was nicknamed "the shopkeeper." Up to a much later period it still
remained the duty of certain districts to send natural products to
the court Herod. I. 192. Xenoph. Anab. IV. 5.]

The palace-gates were reached without hindrance, the way being kept
clear by lines of soldiers and whipbearers stationed on either side of
the street.

If the royal progress to the place of sacrifice, when five hundred
richly-caprisoned horses had been led behind the king's chariot,
could be called magnificent, and the march of the