adopted it, and seem to have brought it to perfection; the same is true, as it seems, of that ingenious and delicate process which consisted of stamping scenes in relief upon bricks, a number of which thus formed an enamelled frieze, intended to replace the sculptured slabs of Nineveh. It was at Susa that this system of decoration seems to have reached its ideal perfection; at any rate, it is only among the ruins of this capital that we can study it in detail, thanks to the discoveries of M. Dieulafoy, which add a new chapter to the history of art. It has been possible to reconstruct at the Louvre two entire friezes disinterred at Susa before the façade of the apadâna of the palace of Artaxerxes Mnemon. That of the lions (fig. 135) is composed of bricks in relief, 1 ft. 2 in. long by 7 in. high and 9 in. thick. The lions, nine in number, are each 11 ft. 3 in. long by 5 ft. 6 in. high. The ground, on which the figures stand out, is a flat surface of a turquoise-blue colour; the lions, which are, for the most part, of a greyish-white colour, have certain parts of their body, for instance the mane, of a watery greenish blue; and others, for instance the swell of the muscles, of a deep yellow. They are treated in the Assyrian manner, to such an extent that, if it were not for the relief, they would exactly resemble the enamelled lions on flat bricks at Khorsabad. As at Nineveh, the muscles are exaggerated, the head and forepart of the lion too small. The procession of wild beasts is framed in several lines of elegant symmetrical designs: rows of chevrons, of Egyptian palmettes, and of Assyrian daisies. [Illustration: Fig. 136.--Susian archer (Louvre).]