and to enable it to rise with readiness upon the rollers, which were
continually placed before it by laborers just in front, while others
following behind gathered them up when the bulky mass had passed over
there. The motive power was applied in front by four gangs of men who
held on to four large cables, at which they pulled by means of small
ropes or straps fastened to them, and passed under one shoulder and over
the other--an arrangement which enabled them to pull by weight as much
as by muscular strength, as the annexed figure will plainly show. [PLATE
LXXXIX., Fig. 1.] The cables appear to have been of great strength, and
are fastened carefully to four strong projecting pins--two near the
front, two at the back part of the sledge, by a knot so tied that it
would be sure not to slip. [PLATE LXXXIX., Fig. 4.] Finally, as in spite
of the rollers, whose use in diminishing friction, and so facilitating
progress, was evidently well understood, and in spite of the amount of
force applied in front, it would have been difficult to give the first
impetus to so great a mass, a lever was skilfully applied behind to
raise the hind part of the sledge slightly, and so propel it forward,
while to secure a sound and firm fulcrum, wedges of wood were inserted
between the lever and the ground. The greater power of a lever at a
distance from the fulcrum being known, ropes were attached to its upper
end, which could not otherwise have been reached, and the lever was
worked by means of them.

We have thus unimpeachable evidence as to the mode whereby the
conveyance of huge blocks of stone along level ground was effected. But
it may be further asked, how were the blocks raised up to the elevation
at which we find them placed? Upon this point there is no direct
evidence; but the probability is that they were drawn up inclined ways,
sloping gently from the natural ground to the top of the platforms. The
Assyrians were familiar with inclined ways, which they used almost
always in their attacks on walled places, and which in many cases they
constructed either of brick or stone. The Egyptians certainly employed
them for the elevation of large blocks; and probably in the earlier
times most nations who affected massive architecture had recourse to the
same simple but uneconomical plan. The crane and pulley were applied to
this purpose later. In the Assyrian sculptures we find no application of
either to building, and no instance at all of the