BABYLON AND PERSIA

BABYLON TIIE GREAT. 243fashion. . . . They have long hair, wear turbans, and anoint theirwhole body with perfumes. Every one carries a seal, and a walking-stick,carvetl at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily,an eagle, for it is not their habit to use a stick without an orna¬ment."This description, superficial as it is, and bearingon the merely outer traits which would naturallystrike a foreigner, contains two details which guaran¬tee its faithfulness, being amply corroborated bymodern discoveries; in the seals which every onecarries, we recognize the familiar seal-cylinders, thegeneral use of which accounts for the enormousnumber of .specimens which has been found, amount¬ing to several thousands, scattered in various collec¬tions, public and private, that of the British Mu¬seum alone counting over six hundred. As to theornamental knobs of the walking-sticks, such arti¬cles are often found in the ruins, and are thoughtto have served for the very purpose mentioned byHerodotus. He also notes some of the more re¬markable customs of those which would be sure- tostrike a traveller or be pointed out to him, evenwithout his knowing a word of the language. Suchis the custom of laying people in the street whenthey were very ill, for the passers-by to advise themon their case * ; also that of holding a matrimonialauction once a year,a sort of fair, at which, mar¬riageable giris being collected in one place, the menassembled to inspect them, forming a circle aroundthem t Then a herald or public crier called tlieir* For the meaning and origin of this custom see " Story of Chal¬dea," p. 163.f Herodotus Siiys " all the marriageable giris," and m£ikes the cus-