ight be
recognized.[365] We might be tempted to think that in these remains M.
Oppert saw all that was left of the pictures which excited the admiration
of Ctesias.

Inscriptions in big letters obtained by the same process accompanied and
explained the pictures. The characters were white on a blue ground. M.
Oppert brought together some fifteen of these monumental texts, but he did
not find a single fragment upon which there was more than one letter. The
inscriptions were meant to be legible at a considerable distance, for the
letters were from two to three inches high. In later days Arab architects
followed the example thus set and pressed the elegant forms of the cufic
alphabet into their service with the happiest skill.[366]

For the composition of one of these figures of men or animals a large
number of units was required, and in order that it might preserve its
fidelity it was necessary not only that the separate pieces should exactly
coincide but that they should be fixed and fitted with extreme nicety. At
Babylon they were attached to the wall with bitumen. On the posterior
surface of several enamelled bricks in the Louvre a thick coat of this
substance may be seen; it has preserved an impression of all the
roughnesses on the surface of the crude mass to which it was applied. It is
impossible to decide whether this natural mortar was allowed to fill the
joints between one enamelled square and another or not. None of these
bricks have been found in place, and none, so far as we know, unbroken. The
coat at the back may have rendered the adherence so complete that no
further precaution was necessary. In Assyria, so far at least as Khorsabad
is concerned, they were content with less trouble. The bricks forming the
enamelled archivolt of which we have spoken are attached to the wall with a
mortar in which there is but little adhesive power.[367] It offered no
resistance when M. Place stripped the archway in order that he might enrich
his own country with the spoils of Sargon. But for an accident that sent
his boats to the bottom of the Tigris not far from Bassorah this beautiful
gateway would have been rebuilt in Paris.[368]

To fit all these squares into their proper places was a delicate operation,
but it was rendered easy by long practice. Signs, or rather numbers, for
the guidance of the workmen, have been noticed upon the uncovered faces of
the crude brick walls.[369] Still more skill was required for the proper