their execution of the great brick bas-reliefs with which the expedition conducted by M. Dieulafoy has enriched the Louvre. Unfortunately only unimportant fragments of bricks modelled in relief have been, down to the present time, brought to Europe. Travellers pick up hundreds of fragments of flat enamelled bricks like those at Nineveh on every mound which covers the ruins of Chaldæa. Those which have been deposited in our museums represent floral designs, rosettes, genii, animals, and human figures. Only skilfully directed excavations could bring to light complete pictures and scenes analogous to those displayed upon the walls of the Ninevite and Susian palaces. Diodorus, following Ctesias, relates that at Babylon, on the walls of the palace built by Nebuchadnezzar, but which he attributes to Semiramis, there were scenes of every sort painted on brick. “Animals of every kind,” he says, “were here to be seen, copied according to all the rules of art with regard both to form and colour. The whole represented the hunting of various animals, the dimensions of which exceeded four cubits. In the midst was Semiramis on horseback, hurling a javelin at a panther, and beside her, her husband Ninus striking with his lance a lion which he is attacking at close quarters.” Berosus is no doubt speaking of enamelled bricks in his description of the paintings in the Temple of Bel, in which were seen “marvellous monsters of every sort presenting the greatest variety of forms.” Lastly, the prophet Ezekiel, who lived at Babylon, says, speaking of Jerusalem: “she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldæans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldæa.” The art of enamelling brick, handed down by the Babylonians to the Persians of the Achæmenid period, long remained flourishing in the East. The decoration of the mosques of Broussa, Tabriz, and Ispahan, which excites the admiration of every traveller, is based on the same principles as that of the Ninevite, Babylonian, and Susian palaces. Only, instead of figures of living beings, which the Koran does not tolerate, the enamelled tiles bear religious inscriptions in ornamental Cufic characters, and elegant designs of flowers and trees. Every one has had the opportunity of seeing specimens from the workshops which were still flourishing in the last century in Asia Minor, and the productions of which adorn the palaces and the richest mosques of the Mussulman world. This art is directly derived from the Chaldæo-Assyrians, and it is interesting to observe that their successors, down to our own times, have not made the smallest progress in it. CHAPTER IV. _INDUSTRIAL ARTS._ § I. CERAMICS.