How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
winged men already described, was surmounted by the head of an eagle
or of a vulture. The curved beak, of considerable length, was half
open, and displayed a narrow-pointed tongue, on which were still the
remains of red paint. On the shoulders fell the usual curled and bushy
hair of the Assyrian images, and a comb of feathers rose on the top of
the head. Two wings sprang from the back, and in either hand was the
square vessel and fir-cone. In a kind of girdle were three daggers,
the handle of one being in the form of the head of a bull. They may
have been of precious metal, but more probably of copper, inlaid with
ivory or enamel, as a few days before a copper dagger-handle,
precisely similar in form to one of those carried by this figure,
hollowed to receive an ornament of some such material, had been
discovered in the S.W. ruins, and is now preserved in the British
Museum. This effigy, which probably typified by its mythic form the
union of certain divine attributes, may perhaps be identified with the
god Nisroch, in whose temple Sennacherib was slain by his sons after
his return from his unsuccessful expedition against Jerusalem; the
word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, 'an eagle.'"
The slabs arranged in the tenth compartment are interesting. On the
first, two horsemen, whose peaked helmets suggest that they are
Assyrians, are charging another horseman with their spears. Behind is
a bird carrying off the entrails of the killed. The second slab,
covered with an inscription, formed part of the northwest palace.
Winged figures are traceable on other slabs in this compartment; and
in the centre the visitor should remark the only Assyrian statue yet
discovered. It is a seated figure, headless. Between the tenth and
eleventh compartments are placed some painted bricks, used in adorning
the interior of Assyrian edifices. The eleventh and last compartment
contains two slabs, on the first of which is a monarch holding two
arrows in token of peace. Having fully examined these objects, the
visitor has done with the Nimroud room. Of the romantic stories
connected with the researches for the invaluable fragments it
contains, we should be glad to give the reader a faint sketch. How Mr.
Layard struggled against all kinds of difficulties; slept in hovels
not sheltered from the rain; used his table as his roof by night; rode
backwards and forwards from Nimroud to Mosul to expostulate with the
vexatious interferences of a tyrannical old pasha; cheered the labours
of his superstitious workmen; celebrated the discovery of certain
remains with substantial feastings and music: made peace with a
wandering Arab who threatened to rob him: these, and a thousand other
adventures, recorded in his narrative of his discoveries, give an
additional zest to the curiosity with which visitors enter this
Nimroud room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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