Of ancient Babylonian sculptures but few are known to remain. Of these, one is a small bronze figure of a goddess named Keodormabug, and a broken statuette in alabaster of the god Nebo. But a number of small cylinders of stone that were used as seals, and which are covered with engravings or inscriptions, give us much information of early Chaldean history. The Chaldeans were far advanced in astronomy and in arithmetic, which is indispensable to a knowledge of astronomy. A LIBRARY OF BRICK BOOKS. The Chaldeans had eight sacred books, said to have been written by the god Oannes. No copies of these original books remain. But some of their sayings were copied into the books of later kings. All that remains of the books of ancient Chaldea is that which had been transported to Assyria, where it was found by Layard and later by Smith, in making their excavations at Nineveh. He found in the ruins of the palace built by King Asshurbanipal, in one of the halls, a library. “This curious library consists entirely of flat, square tablets of baked clay, having on each side a page of very small and closely written cuneiform cursive letters, impressed on the clay while it was still moist. Each tablet was numbered and formed a page of a book composed of a number of such tablets, probably piled one on another in the library.” The greater part of these tablets are now in England. This collection was intended for a public library as we see from the following translation of some of the tablets: “Palace of Asshurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom the god Nebo and the goddess Tashmit (goddess of wisdom), have given ears to hear and eyes to see what is the foundation of government. They have revealed to the kings, my predecessors, this cuneiform writing, the manifestation of the god Nebo, the god of supreme intelligence. I have written it upon tablets, I have signed it, I have placed it in my palace for the instruction of my subjects.” [Illustration: CUNEIFORM LETTERS.] The cuneiform characters, as they are called, are made up of marks shaped like arrow-heads or wedges. There were enormous difficulties in the way of their interpretation. In Egypt the similar task of making known the meaning of the hieroglyphics was performed in great part by one man, Champollion, but in Assyria the work was done by many scholars. Now the famous library is nearly all translated, as are the inscriptions on the seals as well. Asshurbanipal lived about B.C. 650. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.