Herodotus describes with some elaboration the costume of the Babylonians in his day.  He tells us that they wore a long linen gown reaching down to their feet, a woollen gown or tunic above this, a short cloak or cape of a white color, and shoes like those of the Boeotians.  Their hair they allowed to grow long, but confined it by a head-band or a turban; and they always carried a walking-stick with a carving of some kind on the handle.  This portraiture, it is probable, applies to the richer inhabitants of the capital, and represents the Babylonian gentleman of the fifth century before our era, as he made his appearance in the streets of the metropolis.

The cylinders seem to show that the ordinary Babylonian dress was less complicated.  The worshipper who brings an offering to a god is frequently represented with a bare head, and wears apparently but one garment, a tunic generally ornamented with a diagonal fringe, and reaching from the shoulder to a little above the knee.  The tunic is confined round the waist by a belt. [PLATE XXII., Fig. 1.] Richer worshippers, who commonly present a goat, have a fillet or headband, not a turban, round the head.  They wear generally the same sort of tunic as the others; but over it they have a long robe, shaped like a modern dressing-gown, except that it has no sleeves, and does not cover the right shoulder. [PLATE XXII., Fig. 1.] In a few instances only we see underneath this open gown a long inner dress or robe, such as that described by Herodotus. [PLATE XXII., Fig. 2.] A cape or tippet of the kind which he describes is worn sometimes by a god, but is never seen, it is believed, in any representation of a mortal.

[Illustration:  PLATE XXII.]

The short tunic, worn by the poorer worshippers, is seen also in a representation (hereafter to be given) of hunters attacking a lion.  A similar garment is worn by the man—­probably a slave—­who accompanies the dog, supposed to represent an Indian hound; and also by a warrior, who appears on one of the cylinders conducting six foreign captives. [PLATE XXII., Fig. 4.] There is consequently much reason to believe that such a tunic formed the ordinary costume of the common people, as it does at present of the common Arab inhabitants of the country.  It left the arms and right shoulder bare, covering only the left.  Below the belt it was not made like a frock but lapped over in front, being in fact not so much a garment as a piece of cloth wrapped round the body.  Occasionally it is represented as patterned; but this is somewhat unusual. [PLATE XXII., Fig. 3.]

In lieu of the long robe reaching to the feet, which seems to have been the ordinary costume of the higher classes, we observe sometimes a shorter, but still a similar garment—­a sort of coat without sleeves, fringed down both sides, and reaching only a little below the knee.  The worshippers who wear this robe have in most cases the head adorned with a fillet. [PLATE XXIII., Fig. 1.]