h truth that they had the same power in Assyria which
they have commonly possessed in the more degraded of the Oriental
monarchies. It is perhaps a sound interpretation of the name Rabsaris in
Scripture to understand it as titular, not appellative, and to translate
it "the Chief Eunuch" or "the Master of the Eunuchs;" and if so, we have
an instance of the employment by one Assyrian king of a person of this
class on an embassy to a petty sovereign: but the sculptures are far
from bearing out the notion that eunuchs held the same high position in
the Assyrian court as they have since held generally in the East, where
they have not only continually filled the highest offices of state, but
have even attained to sovereign power. On the contrary, their special
charge seems rather to have been the menial offices about the person of
the monarch, which imply confidence in the fidelity of those to whom
they are entrusted, but not submission to their influence in the conduct
of state affairs. And it is worthy of notice that, instead of becoming
more influential as time went on, they appear to have become less so; in
the later sculptures the royal attendants are far less generally eunuchs
than in the earlier ones; and the difference is most marked in the more
important offices.

[Illustration: PLATE 116]

It is not quite certain that the Chief Eunuch is represented upon the
sculptures. Perhaps we may recognize him in an attendant, who commonly
bears a fan, but whose special badge of office is a long fringed scarf
or band, which hangs down below his middle both before him and behind
him, being passed over the left shoulder. [PLATE CXVI., Fig. 2.] This
officer appears, in one bas-relief, alone in front of the king; in
another, he stands on the right hand of the Vizier, level with him,
facing the king as he drinks; in a third, he receives prisoners after a
battle; while in another part of the same sculpture he is in the king's
camp preparing the table for his master's supper. There is always a good
deal of ornamentation about his dress, which otherwise nearly resembles
that of the inferior royal attendants, consisting of a long fringed gown
or robe, a girdle fringed or plain, a cross-belt generally fringed, and
the scarf already described. His head and feet are generally bare,
though sometimes the latter are protected by sandals. He is found only
upon the sculptures of the early period.

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