rian basement-room of the British Museum.--ED.

[300] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 314.

[301] We here quote the opinion of Mr. Ready, the well-known director of
the museum workshops. In April, 1882, he had examined this curious
monument, which is now placed in the public galleries close to the Balawat
gates.

[302] HERODOTUS, ii. 179: Pylai de enestasi perix tou teicheos hekaton,
chalkeai pasa kai stathmoi te kai huperthuma hosautos.

[303] An account of the discovery and a short description of the remains,
will be found in an article by Mr. Theo. G. PINCHES, published in the
_Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology_, and entitled: _The
Bronze Gates discovered by Mr. Rassam at Balawat_ (vol. vii. part i. pp.
83-118). The sculptured bronze from these gates is not all, however, in the
British Museum. Mr. Rassam's workmen succeeded in appropriating a certain
number in the course of the excavations, and thus M. Gustave Schlumberger
has become possessed of a few pieces, while others of much greater
importance have come into the hands of M. de Clercq. M. F. LENORMANT has
published in the _Gazette Archeologique_ (1878) a description of the pieces
belonging to M. Schlumberger, with two plates in heliogravure. We have
already referred to the great work which is now in course of publication by
the _Society of Biblical Archaeology_; it will put an exact reproduction of
this interesting monument in the hands of Assyriologists and those
interested in the history of art. We shall return to these gates when we
come to treat of sculpture.

[304] A number of sockets found by M. de Sarzec in the ruins of Tello are
now deposited in the Louvre. M. PLACE found some at Khorsabad (_Ninive_,
vol. i. p. 314), and Sir Henry LAYARD on the sites of the towns in Upper
Mesopotamia (_Discoveries_, p. 242). The British Museum has a considerable
number found in various places.

[305] In the same case as the Balawat gates there is a brick, which has
obviously been used for this purpose.

[306] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 314.

[307] In the British Museum there are some smaller bronze objects of the
same kind from the palace of Sennacherib. Others were found by M. PLACE in
the palace of Sargon (_Ninive_, plate 70, fig. 6), so that they must have
been in frequent use.

[308] LAYARD (_Discoveries_, p. 163) gives a sketch of one of these
objects. Its internal diameter is about five inches, and its weight 6 lbs.
3-3/4 oz. These rings ar