Inhabited Palaces. 341 of Oriental art. Somewhat higher again, just below the frieze, are pierced small windows with balustrade-like casement of stone, so as to show how the architect could introduce a little light into his apartments, which otherwise would only be lighted through the door. In front of the palace we have imagined the soil furrowed by countless rills, masked by plants and shrubs which they feed into greenness, a contrivance still resorted to in modern Persia to obtain the equivalent of our lawns. Around the grassy plots are level walks or paths paved with coloured flags. Towards the right is seen part of a basin, and in the middle a pedestal with an iron cage at the top.' Reference has been made to a reservoir situated at the entrance of the esplanade, midway between the Propyla;a and the hypostyle hall. On the other hand, the bas-reliefs of Assyria and Egypt tell us that the monarchs of these countries liked to surround themselves with semi-tamed lions and other fenc, either let loose in their parks or shut up near the palace. Over against the basin appears, in its present condition, one of the flights of the Palace of Xerxes, and upon a pedestal a bull, whose function in that situation we have explained elsewhere. The one exemplar we possess of these solitary hgures was discovered among the stones and rubbish of this very building. A little further again, in the background, we get a side view of the Hall of a Hundred Columns with its restored walls, and behind, one of the royal tombs (see Plate IX.). Palms have been interspersed in between the buildings. Their airy stem and elegant head of leaves, better than an)- other vegetable form, lend themselves well to be grouped about edifices to the best advantage of the latter, whilst they serve to bring out their elevation. Palm trees are no longer cultivated in the plain of Mervdasht, yet the climate admits of their being grown as ornamental plants. All they reciuire Is a little water at the roots during the summer months, and a place nut open to the wintry blasts which blow from the north. Of the fondness the Persians had and still have for trees of fine growth, the pleasure they took in trying to acclimatize such as were not indigenous, we have spoken in another place.' The palace we have just restored and placed in its setting was ' Pedestal and cage have sccmiagly been forgotten. — Trs.
- Sist. tf Art^ torn. v. p. 657.
Digitized by Gopgle
