and a basket.  This figure is thus described by Mr. Layard:  “A human body, clothed in robes similar to those of the winged men already described, was surmounted by the head of an eagle or of a vulture.  The curved beak, of considerable length, was half open, and displayed a narrow-pointed tongue, on which were still the remains of red paint.  On the shoulders fell the usual curled and bushy hair of the Assyrian images, and a comb of feathers rose on the top of the head.  Two wings sprang from the back, and in either hand was the square vessel and fir-cone.  In a kind of girdle were three daggers, the handle of one being in the form of the head of a bull.  They may have been of precious metal, but more probably of copper, inlaid with ivory or enamel, as a few days before a copper dagger-handle, precisely similar in form to one of those carried by this figure, hollowed to receive an ornament of some such material, had been discovered in the S.W. ruins, and is now preserved in the British Museum.  This effigy, which probably typified by its mythic form the union of certain divine attributes, may perhaps be identified with the god Nisroch, in whose temple Sennacherib was slain by his sons after his return from his unsuccessful expedition against Jerusalem; the word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, ‘an eagle.’”

The slabs arranged in the tenth compartment are interesting.  On the first, two horsemen, whose peaked helmets suggest that they are Assyrians, are charging another horseman with their spears.  Behind is a bird carrying off the entrails of the killed.  The second slab, covered with an inscription, formed part of the northwest palace.  Winged figures are traceable on other slabs in this compartment; and in the centre the visitor should remark the only Assyrian statue yet discovered.  It is a seated figure, headless.  Between the tenth and eleventh compartments are placed some painted bricks, used in adorning the interior of Assyrian edifices.  The eleventh and last compartment contains two slabs, on the first of which is a monarch holding two arrows in token of peace.  Having fully examined these objects, the visitor has done with the Nimroud room.  Of the romantic stories connected with the researches for the invaluable fragments it contains, we should be glad to give the reader a faint sketch.  How Mr. Layard struggled against all kinds of difficulties; slept in hovels not sheltered from the rain; used his table as his roof by night; rode backwards and forwards from Nimroud to Mosul to expostulate with the vexatious interferences of a tyrannical old pasha; cheered the labours of his superstitious workmen; celebrated the discovery of certain remains with substantial feastings and music:  made peace with a wandering Arab who threatened to rob him:  these, and a thousand other adventures, recorded in his narrative of his discoveries, give an additional zest to the curiosity with which visitors enter this Nimroud room.