to give to the types which he created the least expression, betraying any motion whatever of joy or sadness: his figures remain impassive, whether taking part in joyous banquets, in the excitement of hunting, in battle, or even amidst the most atrocious tortures. The countenance of the Assyrian is always imperturbable, never laughs and never weeps; the gestures of his arms alone are designed to express and interpret his impressions. The hand raised and drawn back to the height of the nape of the neck is a sign of introduction or of an appeal; the hand raised in front of the mouth is a sign of mourning and of violent grief; the hands held in such a way that one grasps the wrist of the other, make a gesture which implies an acknowledgment of servitude and absolute submission, due only to the sovereign or to the gods. Assyrians are sometimes seen in the act of prayer, raising one hand as high as the face, while the other hangs loosely by the side; but some adopt the Christian posture in prayer, raising their two hands and pressing the palms against one another. [Illustration: Fig. 78.--Jewish type, from a bas-relief from the palace of Sennacherib (British Museum).] As the bas-reliefs of the Ninevite palaces are specially devoted to the representation of the military campaigns of the kings against foreign nations, the artist has often been led to draw men or women of distant countries, distinguished from the Assyrians by their national costume or by certain ethnographical characteristics. It is sometimes possible to understand these distinctions between Assyrians and foreigners in the sculptures: for instance, the Jewish type could scarcely be better expressed at the present day than it is in the figure of one of the captives coming to make their submission to King Sennacherib in his camp before the walls of Lachish (fig. 78). Moreover, with regard to the human form, the scope of Assyrian sculpture was greatly limited in [Illustration: Fig. 79.--Assurbanipal in his chariot (Bas-relief from Kouyunjik, Louvre).] consequence of the false modesty of the East, which was in existence in ancient times as it is in our own day among the Arabs, and prevented the artist from studying the human frame in the nude and in the living model. The Assyrian, like the Arab, is always draped in his thick burnoos, and this fashion, observed with religious strictness, contributed to no small extent to the sudden arrest of the progress of art. The long linen tunic, garnished with embroideries, only allows the head, feet and fore-arm to be seen; the working dress of the slaves, or sometimes the tunic of the soldiers, descends no further than the knee; the large fringed shawl, when it is worn, envelops the body like the Arab burnoos and the Roman toga. [Illustration: Fig. 80.--Sargon (Bas-relief from Khorsabad, Louvre).]