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be as on dry land to the palaces that stood on each side.*1 his passage was covered with an arch of the same eleva-tion with the bed of the river; and its foundation and sideswere made as fast as they could : but as the bitumen re-quired water to harden, and make it cement, the Eu-phrates was let in over the wet arch to give it solidity anda durable consistence. The royal mansions are coveredwith brass, which contribute much to their beauty andsplendor. The apartments of both men and women, to-gether with the porticos, are adorned, some with silver,others with tapestry of gold, and even some with beatengold in place of pictures. The painted decorations of theirhangings were all taken from Greek stories, of which An-dromeda, and Amymone, and Orpheus,j - supplied subjects.They are delighted with Orpheus , more I am inclined tothink from the reverence they have for his tiara and loosehose, than for his skill in music, and the divine songs withwhich he charms the soul. In the tapestry-workj; werealso to be seen Datis plucking Naxos out of the sea,Artaphernes besieging Eretria , and the victories of KingXerxes. To these were added, Adiens in the possessionof the enemy, and Thermopylae, and such other representa-tions as were fitted to swell the Median pride; as riversdried up, bridges flung across the ocean, and mountAthos perforated. It is said Apollonius visited an apart-ment belonging to the men, whose ceiling was arched in

• See Diodorus Siculus , b. ii. chap. 1. who gives an account of thisvaulted passage under the bed of the Eupluates, which Pliilostratussays was in depth two orguias, or 12 feet.

t The stories of Andromeda and Orpheus are better known thanthat of Amy mone, who was the daughter of Danaus and Europa, andmarried to Enceladus, whom she murdered the first night of her nup-tials.

t See Herodotus , for an illustration of the particular portion of his-represented in the tapestry.

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