o-comic air offerings which consist chiefly of game,
while a man in a mask seeks to steal away the sacred tree from the
temple wherein the scene is enacted. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 4.]

It is probable that the most elaborate and most artistic of the
Babylonian works of art were of a kind which has almost wholly perished.
What bas-relief was to the Assyrian, what painting is to moderns, that
enamelling upon brick appears to have been to the people of Babylon. The
mimetic power, which delights in representing to itself the forms and
actions of men, found a vent in this curious byway of the graphic
art; and the images of the Chaldaeans, portrayed upon the wall, with
vermilion, and other hues, formed the favorite adornment of palaces and
public buildings, at once employing the artist, gratifying the taste of
the native connoisseur, and attracting the admiration of the foreigner.

The artistic merit of these works can only be conjectured. The
admiration of the Jews, or even that of Diodorus, who must be viewed
here as the echo of Ctesias, is no sure test; for the Jews were a people
very devoid of true artistic appreciation; and Ctesias was bent on
exaggerating the wonders of foreign countries to the Greeks. The fact of
the excellence of Assyrian art at a somewhat earlier date lends however
support to the view that the wall-painting of the Babylonians had some
real artistic excellence. We can scarcely suppose that there was any
very material difference, in respect of taste and aesthetic power,
between the two cognate nations, or that the Babylonians under
Nebuchadnezzar fell very greatly short of the Assyrians under
Asshur-bani-pal. It is evident that the same subjects--war scenes and
hunting scenes--approved themselves to both people; and it is likely
that their treatment was not very different. Even in the matter
of color, the contrast was not sharp nor strong; for the Assyrians
partially colored their bas-reliefs.

Tho tints chiefly employed by the Babylonians in their colored
representations were white, blue, yellow, brown, and black. The blue was
of different shades, sometimes bright and deep, sometimes exceedingly
pale. The yellow was somewhat dull, resembling our yellow ochre. The
brown was this same hue darkened. In comparatively rare instances the
Babylonians made use of a red, which they probably obtained with some
difficulty. Objects were colored, as nearly as possible, according to
their natural tints--water a light b