Then follows, on the fourth stone, one of the most curious representations of the series. This consists of two small figures of men, one of whom is mounting a ladder of twenty rungs, which rises obliquely from the ground-level and ends at two-thirds of the height of the stone. M. Perrot suggests that these were clowns, which seems to be an unnecessary complication: it is more natural to suppose that there is here commemorated some scene familiar in the rites, or in the representation of them. The men are clad in short tunics, and other details noticeable in their dress are the helmet-like hat[608] of the man upon the ladder, the skull-cap and earrings of the other, the girdle-knot of both. The position of their hands is very curious and interesting, and enables us to divine with some certainty the real meaning of the group. In the several photographs before us,[609] taken from different points of view in different lights, we get (as is commonly the case) a comparative effect of great assistance in eliminating the unessential features on the stone. It may be seen[610] that the man upon the ladder is not holding the ladder in order to climb up higher. There is plain to careful scrutiny of the photograph a small thin implement projecting below the clenched hand, which is just clear of the ladder near the top. The right hand is raised aloft and grasps a rounded implement (more clearly seen in another picture), in a natural attitude of striking a blow. He is working with a chisel and mason’s hammer; it must be the simplicity of the interpretation that has so long deferred it. Now the courses of this wall are about four feet in height,[611] so that a ladder of ordinary tread with twenty rungs would rest approximately against the fourth course or the fifth. If the man stood about the middle of the ladder, which was nearly twice his own height, as is suggested in the picture, he would be working on the third or fourth course, or at the equivalent height. In either case it is implied that he is dressing the wall face, as was commonly done after the blocks had been fitted, and this being a last stage of the building, the completion of the palace is commemorated by the sculpture. The possibility that the sculptor here represents himself at work, as was not unknown in Oriental mural decorations, seems to be excluded by several considerations, the first being the use of a long ladder, which would have been unnecessary even for a second course of sculptures, and the second the absence of any design on that part of the stone where the chisel is at work. The figure standing on the ground-level is seen to be at work in similar fashion upon the lowest courses; he is represented in the act of striking his blow, the hammer being in contact with the chisel.[612] [Illustration: PLATE LXXIII EYUK: SHRINE OF THE MOTHER-GODDESS Sculpture decorating right frontage of palace entrance. (_See p. 262._) EYUK: MUSICIANS WITH BAGPIPE AND GUITAR]