Secondary Forms. 139 retaining the general character of that of the latter, would seem to have been endowed with a more varied and Greek aspect. As to the observations that have fallen from the French savant respecting the dimensions of these doorways, they are of a nature that will not challenge criticism.* Yet we may remark that certain doorways rt Persepolis are relatively narrower than the narrowest ever fashioned by Greek hands. The relation of the width to the height, measured above the plinth, is i to 2 50 in the pillars of the Hall of a Hundred Columns. The mutual relation follows a very simple rule; it oscillates here, as in all Fic. 59. — Su'-« Fragment of duor^frame from a hypo»lyle ball. From Dieulafoy's restoration. PlAteXCVl. buildings, between limits which the exii^encies of the material and the necessities of the construction will not allow to infringe. What far more deserves our attention is the mode of closing, which may be guessed at from the present condition of the bays. This differed according as it was intended for the palace or the tomb. In the former the valves were certainly hung to the door- frame, proved by the existence of sockets and grooves to which they fitted.' On the contrary, the absLiice of rebates from the great throne- rooms at Persepolis does not permit us to suppose that either the entrance to the Takht-i-Jamshid, or those to the sepulchral chambers, were closed by means of stone or timber doors.* Nothing
- DiEULAFOY, L' Art antique, torn. ii. pp. 34-36.
- For details of the rebates and door suspension, both in the Gabre and the
funereal tower at Naksb-i-Rosteni, see Jbid.t torn. I p. 48^ Figs. 19, 34, 54, Plates VL and XI. ; and torn. iiL p. 2, n. 2.
- n>ii/., torn. ii. p. 29. In the Palace of Darius (No. 3 in plan) are evident
traces of a door hav ing been fitted to the bay (//>/</., p. 30, Plate XVI.), but the K Digitized by Google
