lled on one side
only, the flux and glazes used being composed of silicate of soda aided
by oxide of lead; thus prepared, they were again submitted to the action
of fire, care being taken to place the painted side upwards, and having
been thoroughly baked were then ready for use.

The Assyrian intaglios on stones and gems are commonly of a rude
description; but occasionally they exhibit a good deal of delicacy, and
sometimes even of grace. They are cut upon serpentine, jasper,
chalcedony, cornelian, agate, sienite, quartz, loadstone, amazon-stone,
and lapis-lazuli. The usual form of the stone is cylindrical; the sides,
however, being either slightly convex or slightly concave, most
frequently the latter. [PLATE LXXIX., Fig. 3.] The cylinder is always
perforated in the direction of its axis. Besides this ordinary form, a
few gems shaped like the Greek--that is, either round or oval--have been
found: and numerous impressions from such gems on sealing-clay show that
they must have been a tolerably common. The subjects which occur are
mostly the same as those on the sculptures--warriors pursuing their
foes, hunters in full chase, the king slaying a lion, winged bulls
before the sacred tree, acts of worship and other religious or
mythological scenes. [PLATE LXXXI. Fig. 1.] There appears to have been a
gradual improvement in the workmanship from the earliest period to the
time of Sennacherib, when the art culminates. A cylinder found in the
ruins of Sennacherib's palace at Koyunjik, which is believed with reason
to have been his signet, is scarcely surpassed in delicacy of execution
by any intaglio of the Greeks. [PLATE LXXXI., Fig. 1.] The design has a
good deal of the usual stiffness, though even here something may be said
for the ibex or wild-goat which stands upon the lotus flower to the
left: but the special excellence of the gem is in the fineness and
minuteness of its execution. The intaglio is not very deep but all the
details are beautifully sharp and distinct, while they are on so small a
scale that it requires a magnifying glass to distinguish them. The
material of the cylinder is translucent green felspar, or amazon-stone,
one of the hardest substances known to the lapidary.

[Illustration: PLATE 81]

The fictile art of the Assyrians in its higher branches, as employed for
directly artistic purposes, has been already considered; but a few pages
may be now devoted to the humbler divisions of the subject, where th