e find almost the same
profile in a bas-relief at Khorsabad (BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, pl.
146), but there it is cut with less decision and there are no cords.
Between the two semi-domes the figure of a man rises above the wall to his
middle, suggesting the existence of a barbette within. Here the artist may
have been figuring a house rather than a tent.

[214] STRABO, xv. 3, 10.

[215] STRABO, xvi. 1, 5.

[216] Keramoi d' ou chrontai, says Strabo. These words, as Letronne
remarked _a propos_ of this passage, combine the ideas of a tiled roof and
of one with a ridge. The one notion must be taken with the other; hence we
may infer that the Babylonian houses were flat-roofed.

[217] STRABO, ii. 5, 11.

[218] See M. AMEDEE TARDIEU'S reflections upon Strabo's method of work, in
his _Geographie de Strabon_ (Hachette, 3 vols, 12mo.), vol. iii. p. 286,
note 2.

[219] As to this singular people and their religious beliefs, the
information contained in the two works of Sir H. LAYARD (_Nineveh_, vol. 1.
pp. 270-305, and _Discoveries_, pp. 40-92) will be read with interest.
Thanks to special circumstances Sir H. Layard was able to become more
intimately acquainted than any other traveller with this much-abused and
cruelly persecuted sect. He collected much valuable information upon
doctrines which, even after his relation, are not a little obscure and
confused. The Yezidis have a peculiar veneration for the evil principle, or
Satan; they also seem to worship the sun. Their religion is in fact a
conglomeration of various survivals from the different systems that have
successively obtained in that part of Asia. They themselves have no clear
idea of it as a whole. It would repay study by an archaeologist of
religions.

[220] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 70.

[221] See above, page 118, note 1.

[222] Some rooms are as much as thirty feet wide. They would require joists
at least thirty-three feet long, a length that can hardly be admitted in
view of the very mediocre quality of the wood in common use.

[223] _Gailhabaud, Monuments anciens et modernes_, vol. i.; plate entitled
_Tombeaux superposes a Corneto_.

[224] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 309. In this passage M. Place affirms
that Mr. Layard discovered in a room of one of the Ninevite palaces,
several openings cut at less than four feet above the floor level. It is,
moreover, certain that these openings were included in the original plan of
the building,