The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-04 00:00:00

THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY.

An oriental tale—a tale of the Phanar—poetically
called " The Pearl of the Bosphorus," is commenced
in the beginning of the January number. As an
innovation of time and scene in a fiction, it is agree-
able, and we shall watch the development of the
narrative with interest. The most successful attempt
of this kind, in a recent novel, is contained in Miss
Jewry's charming romance, " The Ransom." 1 n that
beautiful story there are some admirable scenes situated
in the island of Cyprus, in the days of the crusade
under St. Louis of France. If the delineations in this
instance be at all comparable with those just men-
tioned, " The Pearl of the Bosphorus" will be emi-
nently successful. " Some Passages in the Life of
Darius, the son of llystaspes, by Himself," is a right
curious (and we at first imagined, a right merry)
article. The writer, however, at once removes our
misconception, by premising thus :—" In adding this
new name to the catalogue of royal authors, we assure
our readers that we perfectly serious." It required
some emphatic declaration of that kind, to disabuse
our minds of the idea that the contributor was at-
tempting to crack an intensely dry joke of a literary
kind. A 5 the explantion of how so precious a trea-
sure of antiquity has been discovered, and where it
has been so long concealed, is of the highest interest,
from its multitude of classical associations, we tran-
scribe the following paragraph :
"To descend to particulars. At a place in Media,
called Behistun, or Bisitun, which is, beyond doubt, the
Bagistan of DiOdorus (a mountain sacred to Jupiter,
where he tells us that Semiramis stopped on her way to
Ecbatana), there is a vast precipitous cliff, portions of
which have been artificially smoothed away. On one of
these sheets of rock, at an immense height above the
plain, though accessible by ladders from a narrow plat •
form extending along its face, is a sculpture, containing
fourteen figures about the size of life. One of these
is in the air, and was mistaken by the ignorant traveller,
who first noticed the figures, for a cross. The other
thirteen he imagined to be our Lord and his twelve
apostles l Major Rawlinson calls this figure in the air
an angel ;' but surely it is intended for Ormazd, the
supreme deity, to whose aid Darius attributes all his
success. Of the figures below, one is evidently a king
and a conqueror. Before the inscriptions were tran-
slated, Sir R. Porter, who copied the sculpture, con•
jecturod that it was Salmaneser. We now know that it

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is Darius. He is represented as fully six feet high,
crowned and boarded. His right hand is elevated ; his
left holds a bow ; and with this and one of his feet ho

presses down the prostate Magian, who, with uplifted
arms, is soliciting the mercy which he did not obtain.
Behind the king are two figures of inferior height ; the
foremost of them bearing a bow and arrows, and the
other a spear. The Persian inscription which contained
their names, appears to have been intentionally de-
stroyed ; but there is an inscription in the Median cha-
racter, which the Major has not yet transmitted to
Europe, which may possibly enable him to ascertain who
they are. In front of Darius are nine rebel chiefs, whom
he overcame after his accession. They are represented
as dwarfish, and frightfully ugly. They have all their
hands tied behind their hacks, and are connected by a
rope, which passes round their necks. The tortures and
cruel deaths which were inflicted on them, are recorded
in the great inscription. Above and below these figures,
and on the body of one of the rebel chiefs, are thirty-
three small inscriptions. They are in three different
characters : eleven in the Persian, copies of which are
given in the present publication ; twelve in the Median,
inclualing translations into that language of all the Per-
sian ones, and ton in the Babylonian character. These
are all in nearly perfect preservation. They contain the
names, and short descriptions of the persons represented.
Under this sculpture are eight columns of writing, three
in the Median and five in the Persian character. The
last of these is only partially filled, and contains thb ac-
count of a rebellion, which took place subsequent to the
completion of the narrative contained in the four pre-
ceding columns. Its leader, Sarokha (or Sardakha,
for the name contains a blotch, which renders one of its
characters uncertain), the Sacian,' is represented at some
distance behind the other chiefs, from all of whom he is'
distinguished by a high-peaked cap. The first four
columns of this inscription are twelve feet in height, and
each contains ninety-six lines. To the left of the sculp-
tures are two colusalis in the Babylonian character, which
Major Rawlinson supposes to be a translation of the
great inscription below and to the right of the sculp-