The fragments actually remaining
are the following:
_First side_. A figure with two books, in a robe richly decorated
with circles of roses. Inscribed "SALOMON (SAP) IENS."
_Second side_. A man with one book, poring over it: he has had a
long stick or reed in his hand. Of inscription only the letters
"GRAMMATIC" remain.
_Third side_. "ARISTOTLE:" so inscribed. He has a peaked double
beard and a flat cap, from under which his long hair falls down his
back.
_Fourth side_. Destroyed.
_Fifth side_. Destroyed, all but a board with, three (counters?) on
it.
_Sixth side_. A figure with compasses. Inscribed "GEOMET * *"
_Seventh side_. Nothing is left but a guitar with its handle
wrought into a lion's head.
_Eighth side_. Destroyed.
SECTION LXXXV. We have now arrived at the EIGHTEENTH CAPITAL, the most
interesting and beautiful of the palace. It represents the planets, and
the sun and moon, in those divisions of the zodiac known to astrologers
as their "houses;" and perhaps indicates, by the position in which they
are placed, the period of the year at which this great corner-stone was
laid. The inscriptions above have been in quaint Latin rhyme, but are
now decipherable only in fragments, and that with the more difficulty
because the rusty iron bar that binds the abacus has broken away, in its
expansion, nearly all the upper portions of the stone, and with them the
signs of contraction, which are of great importance.
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