[432] See above, pp. 158-9 and fig. 49. The details that here follow are borrowed from the narrations of those who have explored the sepulchral mounds of lower Chaldaea. Perhaps the most important of these relations is that of Mr. J. E. TAYLOR, to which we have already referred so often (_Notes on the Ruins of Mugheir_, to which may be added his _Notes on Abou-Sharein and Tell-el-Lahm_, p. 413, in the same volume of the _Journal_). Cf. LOFTUS's eighteenth chapter (_Travels_, &c. p. 198) and the pages in LAYARD's _Discoveries_, from 556 to 561. [433] "Each of the Babylonians," says HERODOTUS (i. 195), "carries a seal and a walking-stick carved at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something similar, for it is not their habit to use a stick without an ornament." [434] LOFTUS, _Travels_, p. 212. [435] See _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. p. 145, note 3. [436] _Les Fouilles de Chaldee, communication d'une Lettre de M. de Sarzec_, par LEON HEUZEY, Sec. 1 (in the _Revue archeologique_ for November, 1881). [437] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. pp. 127 _et seq._ [438] M. OPPERT has translated this text in full in a work entitled: _L'Immortalite de l'Ame chez les Chaldeens_ (_Annales de philosophie chretienne_, vol. viii. 1884), and he has reproduced his version with a few modifications of detail in _Fragments Mythologiques_ (Quantin, 1881, 18mo). M. HALEVY has given long extracts from the same document in an article in the _Revue des Etudes Juives_ (October-December, 1881), entitled: _Les Inscriptions peintes de Citium_, Sec. 2; he has returned to the same subject in an article in the _Revue archeologique_ (July, 1882), _L'Immortalite de l'Ame chez les Peuples semitiques_. We reproduce his translation as the most recent. Herr SCHRADER has devoted a whole book to the translation and explanation of this same myth (_Die Hoellenfahrt der Istar_, Giessen, 1874). [439] See M. CLERMONT-GANNEAU'S _L'Enfer assyrien_, first part (_Revue archeologique_ vol. xxxviii. and plate xxv.). The second article, which should have contained the explanation of this little monument, has never appeared, to the great regret of all who appreciate the knowledge and penetration of that learned writer at their proper value. The first article is nothing but a detailed description, which we abridge. Certain doubts were expressed at the time of its publication as to the authenticity of this object; nothing, however, has happened to confirm them. Both in composition and execution it is excellent. M. Peretie, moreover, was not one to be easily deceived. M. Clermont-Ganneau described and illustrated this bronze plate from photographs, but since his paper appeared he has again visited the East and seen and handled the original. [440] M. CLERMONT-GANNEAU reminds us that this peculiarity is repeated in a monster on one of the Nimroud reliefs (see LAYARD, _Monuments_, series ii. plate 3).