This is more particularly the case with the garments of the kings, which are of a magnificence difficult to describe, or to represent within a narrow compass.

[PLATE LXXXVI, Fig.
1.] One or two specimens, however, may be given almost at random, indicating different styles of ornamentation usual in the royal apparel.
Other examples will be seen in the many illustrations throughout this volume where the king is represented.

It is remarkable that the earliest representations exhibit the most elaborate types of all, after which a reaction seems to set in simplicity is affected, which, however, is gradually trenched upon, until at last a magnificence is reached little short of that which prevailed in the age of the first monuments.

The draperies of Asshur-izir-pal in the north-west palace at Nimrud, are at once more minutely labored and more tasteful than those of any later time.

Besides elegant but unmeaning patterns, they exhibit human and animal forms, sacred trees, sphinxes, griffins, winged horses, and occasionally bull-hunts and lion-hunts.