he is ordinarily held to have been the son of Varahran II.1 It is true that this may possibly have been a mere figure of speech on his part, in desiring to ignore the intermediate successions of less renowned monarchs; but there is nothing inconsistent in the youthful appearance of Narses in this sculpture with the probability of his having been, in effect, the son of the later days of Sapor, who died only some twentyone years previous to the regal accession symbolized in the basrelief; and, singular to say, one of the Armenian authorities lately collected by M. E'variste Prud'homme, in illustration of Sassanian history,2 directly declares that Narses was the son of Sapor I.3

INSCRIPTION No. 7.-NARSES, A.D. 294-303, at Shahpúr.

3

2

5

پتكري زني مزدیسن بگي نرسهي * ملكان ملكا ، ایران و انیران

6

ه منوچتري من يزدان [بري] مزدیسن بگي شهپوهري ? ملكان ملكا ایران و انیران منو چتري من يزدان نپي بگي ارتهشتر ملکان ه

ملكا

8

10

Image of the person of Ormazd-worshipper, divine Narses, king of kings of Irán and Anirán, of heavenly origin from God, the son of Ormazd-worshipper, divine Shahpúr, king of kings of Irán and Anirán, of heavenly origin from God, grandson of divine Artahshatr, king of kings.

INSCRIPTIONS Nos. 8 and 10.

(Pehlvi transcript, page 103.)

The Ták-i-Bustán inscriptions, identificatory of the figures of the two Sapors, the second and third of the name, sculptured under the smaller arch of the excavations in that locality, have for long past been before the public in the decipherments of De Sacy and his commentators; and their final determination may now be said to be set at rest by the exact copies of Sir H. Rawlinson, here reproduced in modern characters. Unlike his previous facsimilies, which were to a certain extent

1 Moudjmel Altawarikh (Journal Asiatique, 1839, p. 38); Hamza Isfaháni, p. 37; Mirchond, De Sacy, p. 301.

2 Journal Asiatique, 1866, p. 101-238.

3 Ibid., Sépêos, p. 17. 4 De Sacy, Mémoires sur div. Ant. p. 211, and second memoir, Journal of the Institute, 1809, vol. ii. p. 162; Ker Porter, ii. 188; Malcolm's Persia, i. 258; M. Boré, Journal Asiatique, June, 1841; M. Louis Dubeux, Journal Asiatique, 1843; Spiegel, Grammatik der Huzváreschsprache, 1856, p. 173.

mere unaided tracings, in this instance the transcriber knew both the letters and general import of the record he was employed upon, and hence his text may be freely accepted as disposing of all exceptional variants and doubtful readings. By a critical examination of these writings, Sir Henry has been enabled to rectify the constituents of the much-canvassed "Vohiya" of previous translators, and to establish the true value of the word, in the more natural, a correction of considerable importance, in that, while demonstrating the authorized provincial or epochally progressive substitution of two 22's for the legitimate archaic form of sh, and thus adding to the general ambiguity of Pehlvi interpretation on the one hand, it extends a new latitude to the optional reconstruction of many obscure passages, which had hitherto been circumscribed by the already sufficiently dubious phonetic powers of the leading basis here duplicated 2, which, under ordinary circumstances, had to respond alike for the powers of r and w, and to meet the manifest incertitudes involved in the technical licence of subordinate convertibilities.

These lapidary epigraphs have also proved of service in contributing a modified form of the ordinarych, in the shape of, a contour of the letter frequently met with on gems, and which was otherwise liable to be mistaken for a simple h. The intentionally final i's are also very carefully defined, in marked contrast to the ordinary initial and medial vowel, a practice which is also scrupulously observed in the majority of the signet legends.

The statues of the two Sapors, father and son, in this basrelief, are strangely alike, a similarity extending even to the minor details of their garments. In Ker Porter's copy, the father, who stands to the right, seems to be the larger man; but the difference in Flandin's sketch is not so apparent. The former author represents the faces of both kings as having been completely destroyed; but Flandin, having possibly cleaned the surface of the stone more effectually, reconstructs their features after the ordinary Sassanian physi ognomy, with the curiously tied beards and bushy hair. Both monarchs stand to the front, with their hands crossed on the

hilts of their straight swords, and the only difference to be detected between them is the half-moon which, in Flandin's drawing, figures as a frontlet on the crown of Sapor III.

The sculptured effigies of the two kings in their near identity of treatment would seem to imply that they must have been executed almost simultaneously, and the juxtaposition itself may possibly have been designed to mark in one and the same field the father's recognition of the heirship of this particular son, who eventually succeeded to his throne in the ordinary course.

INSCRIPTION NO. 8.—SHÁHPÚR II. A.D. 310-381, at Ták-i-Bustán.

3

2

و پتكري * زني مزدیسن شهيا : شهپوهري ملكان ، ملكا ايران انیران منو ، چتري من يزدان بري مزدیسن • شهيا اوهر مزدي ملكان ملکا ایران و انیران منو • چتري من يزدان نبي شهيا • نرسهي ه ملكان ملكا

INSCRIPTION No. 10.-SHAHPUR III., son of SHÁнPÚR, A.D. 385-390, at Ták-iBustan.

8

بتكري زني مزدیسن شهیا ، شهپوهري ، ملکان ملکا • ایران و انيران منو چتري من يزدان بري مزدیسن شهيا " شهپوهري ملكان ملکا ایران و انیران منو چتري من يزدان نپي " شهيا اوهرمزدي ملكان ملكا

11

INSCRIPTION No. 9.

The intervening legends in this series have been recovered from another class of dynastic remains, being taken from the still extant official signets of Varahrán Kermán Sháh, the son of the great Sapor Zu'laktaf, under whom he administered the important government from which his title was derived. In a section of the old world, where the seal so readily adapted itself to the indigenous clay,' and where all

1 Job xxxviii. 14. See also Gen. xxxviii. 18, 25; xli. 42; Exod. xxviii. 9, 10, 11, 21, 36; 1 Kings xxi. 8; Neh. ix. 38; Esth. iii. 10, 12; viii. 2, 8, 10; Song of Solomon viii. 6; Jerem. xxxii. 10, 12, 44; Dan. vi. 17; Matt. xxvii. 66.

men carried seals; indeed, where everything was sealed, from the formal documents on terra cotta and other substances, down to the mouth of the lion's den and the stone of the sepulchre, it was natural that the Signets of Kings should typify a parallel ascendancy, and as such carry a political import equal, if not superior, to that of the Crown itself.3 As this same section of the earth's surface passed under the subjection of dynasty after dynasty, ancient ideas still held their sway, and in the advance of civilization as types and devices were elaborated among the masses, the representatives of the Royal sign manual were naturally more carefully treated, and at last, under the Sassanians, the complications of Persian ceremonial had arrived at a subdivision involving

1 Herodotus, i. 195; iii. 128; vii. 69; Strabo, xvi. c. i. § 20; Ctesias (Phot.) lvii. 2, 5; Xenophon Cyrop. viii. c. 2, § 16, 17.

• A striking instance of the importance attached to Royal Signets, in very early times, has lately been contributed by Sir H. Rawlinson's decipherments of Cuneiform documents. Sir H. remarks: "I have recently lighted on a small clay tablet at the British Museum which bears an inscription to the following effect:

"Tiglath-Ussur, king of Assyria, son of Shalman-Ussur, king of Assyria, and conqueror of Kar-Dunis (Babylonia). Whoever injures my device (?) or name, may Asshur and Yama destroy his name and country.”

"A signet-seal with this legend having been carried off as a trophy in war from Assyria to Babylon, I, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, after 600 years, took the city of Babylon, and from among the spoils of Babylon recovered it."

"The reverse of the tablet contains a repetition of the legend of Tiglath-Ussur with the gloss, 'This is what was written on the signet-seal.' -Athenæum, 22nd August, 1863.

3 Alexander "Literas quoque, quas in Europam mitteret, veteris annuli gemma obsignabat; iis, quas in Asiam scriberet, Darii annulus imprimebatur."-Quintus Curtius, vi. c. 6, § 6. See also x. vi. 4: "Tunc Perdicca, regia sella in conspectum vulgi data, in qua diadema vestisque Alexandri cum armis erant, annulum sibi pridie traditum a rege in eadem sede posuit." 5. "Et Perdicca, Ego quidem inquit, annulum, quo ille regni atque imperii vires obsignare erat solitus, traditum ab ipso mihi, reddo vobis." See also Josephus Ant. xii. c. 9, § 2; xx. c. 2, § 2. So also Justin. "Sexta die praeclusa voce exemptum digito annulum Perdiccae tradidit. Nam etsi non voce nuncupatus heres, judicio tamen electus videbatur.” xii. c. 15, § 12.

In like manner Pompey's "Head and Seal" are brought to Julius Cæsar. Plutarch, in Pompey lxxx. and in Cæsar xlviii. Dion Cassius, xlii. 7, μéxpis ov τήν τε κεφαλὴν καὶ τὸν δακτύλιον αὐτοῦ πεμφθέντα οἱ ὑπὸ τοῦ Πτολεμαίου εἶδον. Dion Cass. xlii. 18, ἐπεὶ μέντοι καὶ ἀπέθανεν, ὀψὲ μὲν καὶ τοῦτο, καὶ οὐ πρότερον, πρὶν τὸν δακτύλιο αὐντοῦ πεμφθέντα ἰδεῖν, ἐπίστευσαν· ἐνεγέγλυπτο δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ τρόπαια τρία, ὥσπερ καὶ ἐν τῷ τοῦ Σύλλου.

a separate seal and distinct device for every one of the nine departments of the State administration.1

In Egypt and to the westward men's signets were set in the form of finger rings, but in the East, among the lightly

1 Ce roi [Naushirwan] employait quatre sceaux d'État. Celui de l' impôt avait pour empreinte la Justice (J). Le sceau des domaines, orné d'une turquoise, avait pour empreinte l'Agriculture (l). Le sceau du conseil avait un rubis (Keuhli) et portait l'empreinte de la Temporisation () Le sceau des postes . . . avait pour empreinte la Fidélité (*\).—Masa’udi,

ii. 204.

(خاتم)

Khusru Parviz had nine different State seals. Mas'audi gives the following details regarding their forms and uses. Le premier était un anneau de diamant dont le chaton était formé d'un rubis rouge sur lequel on avait gravé le portrait du roi; la légende portait les titres du roi; on l'apposait sur les lettres et les diplômes. Le second était un anneau

(l) d'or surmonté d'une cornaline

خراسان خده sur laquelle étaient graves les mots Khorasan Khudah

Il servait aux archives de l'État. Le troisième était orné d'un onyx représentant un cavalier au galop; l'anneau (d), qui était d'or, portait pour légende: célérité. Ce cachet était destiné à la correspondance des postes. Le quatrième était un anneau d'or dont le chaton, formé d'un rubis rose, avait pour légende : la richesse est la source de la prospérité. C'était le sceau des diplômes et des lettres de grâce. Le cinquième, orné d'un rubis bahremán, portait les mots Ce cachet était

khoureh wa khorrem ‚ð→) “splendeur et félicité." posé sur le trésor des pierres précieuses sur la cassette royale, la garde-robe et les ornements de la couronne. Le sixième, représentant un aigle, servait à sceller les dépêches adressés aux rois étrangers; son chaton était en fer de Chine (i). Le septième, surmonté d'un bézoard sur lequel on avait gravé une mouche, était posé sur les mets servis au roi, sur les médicaments et les parfums. Le huitième, dont le chaton était formé d'une perle, avait pour effigie une tête de porc (Journal Asiatique, 1863, p. 304); on posait cette empreinte sur le cou des condamnés à mort et sur les arrêts emportant la peine capitale. Le neuvième était un anneau de fer que le roi employait quand il allait au bain et dans les étuves." ii. 228-9.

The latest development of the art of sealing is highly amusing. We learn from Captain Montgomerie's report of the great Tibetan road from Lhasa to Gartokh (Times, 2nd March, 1868) "that the couriers go continuously, stopping neither night nor day except to eat and change horses, and, after an 800 miles' ride, are haggard and worn to make sure that they shall not take off their clothes they are sealed over the breast, and none may break the seal save him to whom the messenger is sent."

For confirmation of these facts, see also the "Friend of India" (Calcutta), 23rd March, 1868. "The moment a man is selected as a courier, and his coat is sealed, he has no choice in the matter."