n the
British Museum.

The statues of men and gods, as a rule, are lacking in originality. The
heavy robes which drape them from head to foot give them the appearance
of cylinders tied in at the centre and slightly flattened towards the
top. The head surmounting this shapeless bundle is the only life-like
part, and even the lower half of this is rendered heavy by the hair
and beard, whose tightly curled tresses lie in stiff rows one above the
other. The upper part of the face which alone is visible is
correctly drawn; the expression is of rather a commonplace type of
nobility--respectable but self-sufficient. The features--eyes, forehead,
nose, mouth--are all those of Assur-nazir-pal; the hair is arranged in
the fashion he affected, and the robe is embroidered with his jewels;
but amid all this we miss the keen intelligence always present in
Egyptian sculpture, whether under the royal head-dress of Cheops or in
the expectant eyes of the sitting scribe: the Assyrian sculptor could
copy the general outline of his model fairly well, but could not infuse
soul into the face of the conqueror, whose "countenance beamed above the
destruction around him."

The water of the Tigris being muddy, and unpleasant to the taste, and
the wells at Calah so charged with lime and bitumen as to render them
unwholesome, Assur-nazir-pal supplied the city with water from the
neighbouring Zab.* An abundant stream was diverted from this river at
the spot now called Negub, and conveyed at first by a tunnel excavated
in the rock, and thence by an open canal to the foot of the great
terrace: at this point the flow of the water was regulated by dams, and
the surplus was utilised for irrigation** purposes by means of openings
cut in the banks.

* The presence of bitumen in the waters of Calah is due to
the hot springs which rise in the bed of the brook Shor-
derreh.

** The canal of Negub--_Negub_ signifies _hole_ in Arabic--
was discovered by Layard. The Zab having changed its course
to the south, and scooped out a deeper bed for itself, the
double arch, which serves as an entrance to the canal, is
actually above the ordinary level of the river, and the
water flows through it only in flood-time.

The aqueduct was named Babilat-khigal--the bringer of plenty--and, to
justify the epithet, date-palms, vines, and many kinds of fruit trees
were planted along its course, so that both banks soon assume