hree human figures, apparently representations of the king,
below which was the war-horse of the monarch, caparisoned as for battle.
[PLATE LXXXV., Fig. 1.] Another throne of the same monarch's had two
large and four small figures of men at the side, while the back was
supported on either side by a human figure of superior dimensions. The
use of chairs with high backs, like these, was apparently confined to
the monarchs. Persons of less exalted rank were content to sit on seats
which were either stools, or chairs with a low back level with the arms.

[Illustration: PLATE 85]

Seats of this kind, whether thrones or chairs, were no doubt constructed
mainly of wood. The ornamental work may, however, have been of bronze,
either cast into the necessary shape, or wrought into it by the hammer.
The animal heads at the ends of arms seem to have fallen under the
latter description [PLATE LXXXV., Fig. 2.] In some cases, ivory was
among the materials used: it has been found in the legs of a throne at
Koyunjik, and may not improbably have entered into the ornamentation of
the best furniture very much more generally.

The couches which we find represented upon the sculptures are of a
simple character. The body is flat, not curved; the legs are commonly
plain, and fastened to each other by a cross-bar, sometimes terminating
in the favorite pine-shaped ornament. One end only is raised, and this
usually curves inward nearly in a semicircle. [PLATE LXXXV., Fig. 3.]
The couches are decidedly lower than the Egyptian; and do not, like
them, require a stool or steps in order to ascend them.

Stools, however, are used with the chairs or thrones of which mention
was made above--lofty seats, where such a support for the sitter's feet
was imperatively required. [PLATE LXXXV.. Fig. 4.] They are sometimes
plain at the sides, and merely cut _en chevron_ at the base; sometimes
highly ornamented, terminating in lions' feet supported on cones, in the
same (or in volutes), supported on balls, and otherwise adorned with
volutes, lion castings, and the like. The most elaborate specimen is the
stool (No. III.) which supports the feet of Asshur-bani-pal's queen on a
relief brought from the North Palace at Koyunjik, and now in the
National Collection. Here the upper corners exhibit the favorite
gradines, guarding and keeping in place an embroidered cushion; the legs
are ornamented with rosettes and with horizontal mouldings, they are
connected together