On ordinary occasions, the wrapped robe was exchanged for a mantle, open up each side to the shoulders, thus forming two hanging portions, reaching nearly to the feet, the corners of one portion, sometimes of both, being rounded. The borders were generally embroidered in a pattern of rosettes, and edged either with fur, or a fringe of tassels closely resembling that of our bed-furniture, &c.*

Sometimes the undergown is represented as cut short in front, on a level with the knees, while the hinder portion descends to the ankles; the margin of the former, like that of the latter, is fringed and tasseled, and from the angle on each side, or perhaps from a higher point, descend two long cords with terminating tassels, each pair sometimes knotted together. When this form of the undergown is worn, it is accompanied by a corresponding abbreviation of the front portion of the divided mantle. It is seen principally on the winged priests; who

SPENCER AND SKIRT.

* Fringe, identically the same in form and construction, in which the tassels are made of gold and silver thread alternately, or of coloured silk, -is used now by the native princes of India, for bordering their state parasols, and other furniture.

appear sometimes to have worn an outer mantle composed entirely of fur.*

Out of doors, as when engaged in hunting or in battle, the early Assyrian kings and grandees often wore a close-fitting jacket or spencer; from the hinder part of which descended, to about half-way down the thighs, a curious appendage, a square piece of cloth, in general elaborately embroidered, even when the other garments were plain, and furnished at each corner with two long cords terminating in tassels.

The ordinary dress of the Assyrian men was a plain robe, with the margin embroidered and edged with a fringe. Eunuchs commonly, but not always, wore it very long, reaching to the feet; that of men more generally reached only to the calf of the leg, or to the knees. The width of the marginal embroidery appears to have borne some proportion to the rank of the wearer; the grooms, and such like persons, often were destitute of it, their garment being only fringed; yet this rule was not without exceptions, for sometimes the vizier's robe was profusely embroidered, when that of the monarch before whom he stood, displayed comparatively little of this decoration.

In the time of the Lower Dynasty the ordinary dress of the king differed less in the general form than in the style of its decoration, from that of the early monarchs. That in which Shalmaneser is

Layard, pls. 7 and 7a.

commonly figured was very beautiful. It consisted of an under-gown or caftan, fitting rather close to the body, and reaching from the neck to the ankles; furnished with short sleeves tightly embracing the upper arm, and terminating sufficiently high to display the encircling armlets. This garment was either embroidered or woven in an elaborate but regular pattern, such as that composed of the repetition of a square figure of double lines, with a central rosette or star. The usual broad fringe of tassels formed the lower extremity, sometimes united at their tips by an edging of four rows of beads, probably pearls.

Over this gown was thrown the divided mantle; the skirts of which, one before and one behind, hung in a very elegant manner, about as low as the knees, with both extremities rounded. A pattern of embroidered work covered its whole surface, composed of a circular, many-petalled flower, or rosette, repeated in quincuncial order; the margin was a pattern like that of the under gown, and was edged with a broad fringe instead of fur. The edging and fringe running up on each side of the lateral openings, and falling over the shoulders in front, imparted much elegance to this rich garment. At the waist a sort of pocket was formed, open at each end, beneath the edging and the fringe, through which the sword in its highly ornamented sheath passed horizontally, the hilt projecting in front, and the tip extending to some distance behind the royal person.

When we describe this mantle as opened up each side, we do but speak conjecturally; for the sculp

tures can only represent one side. It is just possible that one side only may have been open, in which form it would present an analogy to those very singular garments which are

seen on so many Asiatic figures in the monuments of ancient Egypt, and in particular by some of the gorgeously coloured representatives of Semitic nations in the tomb of Rameses-Mei-Amun.* One of these, a man of the Tehen-nu (supposed by some to be the Hittites) is here represented. Some of the sculptures suggest the thought that the opening was single, and extended up the front; and only represented up the side by the artists' deficiency of a knowledge of drawing. But there are some representations which preclude this explanation, such for example as that of a female accompanying some camels, on a slab from the Central Palace of Nimroud, now in the British Museum. It is true this female is a captive from some foreign people; but the costume is evi

A SEMITIC COSTUME.

(From an Egyptian painting.)

See Osburn's Egypt; Her Testimony to the Truth,' pp. 25, 42, 125, &c., for a description of this dress, and for the identification of those who wore it," the Namoos," with an Euphratean race.