across the breast, being carried
under the right arm and over the left shoulder. The feet seem to have
been naked, or at best protected by a sandal. The head was sometimes
encircled with a fillet.

[Illustration: PLATE 136]

Women thus apparelled are either represented as sitting in chairs and
drinking from a shallow cup, or else as gathering grapes, which, instead
of growing naturally, hang up on branches that issue from a winged
circle. The circle would seem to be emblematic of the divine power which
bestows the fruits of the earth upon man. [PLATE CXXXVI., Fig. 1.]

The lower class of Assyrian women are not represented upon the
sculptures. We may perhaps presume that they did not dress very
differently from the female captives so frequent on the bas-reliefs,
whose ordinary costume is a short gown not covering the ankles, and an
outer garment somewhat resembling the chasuble of the king. The head of
these women is often covered with a hood where the hair appears, it
usually descends in a single long curl. The feet are in every case
naked.

The ornaments worn by women appear to have been nearly the same as those
assumed by men. They consisted principally of earrings, necklaces, and
bracelets. Earrings have been found in gold laid in bronze, some with
and some without places for jewels. One gold earring still held its
adornment of petals. Bracelets were sometimes of glass, and were slipped
over the hand. Necklaces seem commonly to have been of beads, strung
together. A necklace in the British Museum is composed of glass beads
of a light blue color, square in shape and flat, with horizontal
flutings. [PLATE CXXXVI., Fig. 2.] Glass finger-rings have also been
found, which were probably worn by women.

We have a few remains of Assyrian toilet articles. A bronze disk, about
nine inches in diameter, with a long handle attached, is thought to have
been a mirror. In its general shape it resembles both the Egyptian and
the classical mirrors; but, unlike them, it is perfectly plain, even the
handle being a mere flat bar. [PLATE CXXXVI., Fig. 3.] We have also a
few combs. One of these is of iron, about three and a half inches long,
by two inches broad in the middle. It is double, like a modern
small-tooth comb, but does not present the feature, common in Egypt, of
a difference in the size of the teeth on the two sides. The very ancient
use of this toilet article in Mesopotamia is evidenced by the fact,
already noticed, tha