k, Aipaksina, Bilala, Panintimri, and Kindakarpu, were now
brought forth to the light, and made ready to be carried into exile
together with their belongings and their priests.

[Illustration: 251.jpg STATUES OF THE GODS CARRIED OFF BY ASSYRIAN
SOLDIERY]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard, _The Monuments of
Nineveh_.

Thirty-two statues of the kings, both ancient and modern, in silver,
gold, bronze, and marble, escorted the gods on their exodus, among their
number being those of Khumbanigash, son of Umbadara, Shutruk-nakhunta,
and Tammaritu II., the sovereigns who had treated Assyria with
the greatest indignity. The effigy of Khalludush was subjected to
humiliating outrage: "his mouth, with its menacing smile, was mutilated;
his lips, which breathed forth defiance, were slit; his hands, which
had brandished the bow against Assur, were cut off," to avenge, though
tardily, the ill success of Sennacherib. The sacred groves shared the
fate of the temples, and all the riches collected in them by generations
of victors were carried off in cartloads. They contained, amongst
other edifices, the tombs of the ancient heroes of Elam, who had feared
neither Assur nor Ishtar, and who had often brought trouble on the
ancestors of Assur-bani-pal. Their sepulchres were violated, their
coffins broken open, their bones collected and despatched to Nineveh, to
crumble finally into dust in the land of exile: their souls, chained to
their mortal bodies, shared their captivity, and if they were
provided with the necessary sustenance and libations to keep them from
annihilation, it was not from any motives of compassion or pity, but
from a refinement of vengeance, in order that they might the longer
taste the humiliation of captivity.

[Illustration: 252.jpg THE TUMULUS OF SUZA]

The image of Nana was found among those of the native gods: it was now
separated from them, and after having been cleansed from pollution by
the prescribed ceremonies, it was conducted to Uruk, which it entered in
triumph on the 1st of the month Kislev. It was reinstated in the temple
it had inhabited of old: sixteen hundred and thirty-five years had
passed since it had been carried off, in the reign of Kutur-nakhunta, to
dwell as a prisoner in Susa.

Assur-bani-pal had no intention of preserving the city of Susa from
destruction, or of making it the capital of a province which should
comprise the plain of Elam. Possibly it appeared to him too diffi