The visitor will now turn and proceed back towards the door, examining, by the way, the compartments on his left hand.

The first of these, or the sixth compartment, contains, in addition to the fragments of figures including the head and shoulders of a king, and the upper part of an eunuch, two slabs (1,2) upon which is represented that fruitful subject of the Assyrian sculptor’s chisel, the siege of a castle.  The castle, which is represented in the middle of the battle-piece, and at the water’s edge, is attacked by soldiers on all sides.  The vigour of the assailants is well described.  On the left the king directs the attack, with weeping women behind him; the walls are being scaled by ladders; the besieged are hurling stones from the ramparts, and casting fire upon a tower and ram, while the assailants are quenching the flames with water, and two figures are quietly picking holes in the walls in another direction.  Hereabouts the visitor should notice, placed against the window, a pastoral subject—­a man driving cattle.  Upon the next slab, a war chariot in full speed, passing over a dead lion, is represented; and on the sixth and last slab of the compartment is another battlepiece.  Here the besieged castle is surrounded by water; one of the besieged is holding arrows aloft in token of peace, while figures, on inflated skins, swim towards the walls, and soldiers from the banks are aiming arrows at them.

The fragments in the seventh compartment may be easily understood from the descriptions of previous slabs.

The eighth compartment contains some remains which demand particular notice.  The first slab introduces us to a knowledge of the interiors of Assyrian dwellings.  Here the interior of a building is represented divided into four distinct compartments, and exhibiting various people at their several household duties.  We have even a glimpse at an Assyrian groom, who, in an adjoining building, is cleaning a horse.  Prisoners are introduced even here, in this domestic scene, conducted by a warrior to an eunuch; and in the distance are soldiers, with lions’ skins, dancing to the vibrations of a guitar.  The second slab is a continuation of the first.  Here men are mounted in war chariots, while others holding the heads of their enemies in their hands are on foot:  and a bird, grasping in its claws a human head, soars above.  That slab marked 3, and placed against the window hereabouts, was extracted from the centre of the great mound of Nimroud.  Here camels, preceded by a woman, are pourtrayed.  The slab marked 5 bears the representation of an Assyrian divinity, with four wings, the head surmounted by the conical cap with two horns, and the left hand holding a circlet of beads.  A winged figure occurs also on the sixth slab of this compartment, holding a bearded ear of corn in one hand, and a goat in the other.  The slabs of the ninth compartment have also representations of winged figures.  The fourth, with the eagle head, and holding a fir-cone