* Hilpeecht, Bab.  Expcd. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, vol.
     i., 2nd part, p. 47 sqq.

[Illustration:  102.jpg IDINGIRANAGIN IN HIS CHARIOT LEADING HIS TROOPS.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Louvre.  The attendant standing behind the king has been obliterated, but we see clearly the contour of his shoulder, and his hands holding the reins.  It is a large stele of close-grained white limestone, rounded at the top, and covered with scenes and inscriptions on both its faces.  One of these faces treats only of religious subjects.  Two warlike goddesses, crowned with plumed head-dresses and crescent-shaped horns, are placed before a heap of weapons and various other objects, which probably represent some of the booty collected in the campaign.  It would appear that they accompany a tall figure of a god or king, possibly that of the deity Ningirsu, patron of Lagash and its kings.  Ningirsu raises in one hand an ensign, of which the staff bears at the top the royal totem, the eagle with outspread wings laying hold by his talons of two half-lions back to back; with the other hand he brings a, club down heavily upon a group of prisoners, who struggle at his feet in the meshes of a large net.

[Illustration:  103.jpg Page image.  VULTURES FEEDING UPON THE DEAD.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in the Louvre.  This is the human sacrifice after the victory, such as we find it in Egypt—­the offering to the national god of a tenth of the captives, who struggle in vain to escape from fate.  On the other stele the battle is at its height.  Idingiranagin, standing upright in his chariot, which is guided by an attendant, charges the enemy at the head of his troops, and the plain is covered with corpses cut down by his fierce blows:  a flock of vultures accompany him, and peck at each other in their struggles over the arms, legs, and decapitated heads of the vanquished.  Victory once secured, he retraces his steps to bestow funeral honours upon the dead.

[Illustration:  104.jpg PILING UP THE MOUND OF THE DEAD AFTER THE BATTLE.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in the Louvre.  The bodies raised regularly in layers form an enormous heap:  priests or soldiers wearing loin-cloths mount to its top, where they pile the offerings and the earth which are to form the funerary mound.  The sovereign, moreover, has, in honour of the dead, consigned to execution some of the prisoners, and deigns to kill with his own hand one of the principal chiefs of the enemy.

The design and execution of these scenes are singularly rude; men and beasts—­indeed, all the figures—­have exaggerated proportions, uncouth forms, awkward positions, and an uncertain and heavy gait.  The war ended in a treaty concluded with Enakalli, vicegerent of Grishban, by which Lagash obtained considerable advantages.  Idingiranagin replaced the stele of Meshilim, overthrown by one of Enakalli’s predecessors, and dug a ditch from the Euphrates to the provinces of Guedln to serve henceforth as a boundary.  He further levied a tribute of corn for the benefit of the goddess Nina and her consort Ningirsu, and applied the spoils of the campaign to the building of new sanctuaries for the patron-gods of his city.