A last fragment belongs to another composition (Fig. 95). It comes from a relief showing either the departure of an army for the field or its triumphal return. Very little is left, but that little is significant;--a hand holding one of those military standards whose use by the Assyrians we have already noticed (see above, Fig. 46), and the head of a personage, perhaps the king, walking in the procession; and that is all. The head-covering of the latter individual seems to be a kind of feather crown with a metal or ivory aigrette or cockade in the centre of one side, reminding us in its shape of the head of one of the great Assyrian bulls; it would seem to be a symbol of strength and victory. [Illustration: FIG. 94.--Fragment of a stele; from Tello. Height 9¾ inches. Louvre. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.] In the monograph now under preparation by MM. de Sarzec and Heuzey a description of several smaller and still more fragmentary pieces of the same monument will be found. There is one of which the subject may still be traced. We have been prevented from reproducing it by its bad condition. It again shows a battle field. Two rows of corpses are stretched upon the ground; behind them are several standing figures. We may thus re-establish with but little room for mistake the whole economy of the composition. It was made to commemorate some military expedition in which the prince who reigned at Sirtella was successful. We do not know whether the fight itself was represented or not, but we have before our eyes the consequences of victory. One picture shows the insults inflicted upon the lifeless bodies of the hated enemy; two more celebrate the care taken by the victors of their dead and the honours rendered to their memory; finally the march of the successful army is portrayed. We have here, then, a well thought-out combination, a serious effort to seize and figure the different moments in a complicated action. The execution is, however, of singular awkwardness. The first halting experiments of the Chaldæan chisel, what we may call the primitive art of Chaldæa, is preserved for us in the fragments of this great stele.[205] [Illustration: FIG. 95.--Fragment of a stele; from Tello. About one-third of the original size. Louvre. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.]