MSfSVO Library of the University of Toronto hr Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Toronto https://archive.org/details/assyriahermannerOOgoss ASSYRIA PROPRIA. MESOPOTAMIA £Tax\rj$), called in the Phoenician language Or-cul, i.e., Light of all. By mythologists he has been identified also with Jupiter, with Saturn, with Mars ; sometimes he represented the male type of the moon, and was figured, like Astarte, with crescent horns, and with a bovine head. His worship, too, was accompanied with abominable las- civiousness, as that Moabitish Baal-Peor, to whom WORSHIP. 87 Israel joined themselves so fatally in the plains of Shittim ; and, if he was the same as Moloch, with most unnatural cruelties, parents offering their infant offspring to him through the fire. Some have supposed Baal-Peor to have been iden- tical with Chemosh, the Moabitish abomination, to whom Solomon was seduced to erect a temple. Thus Milton says : — “ Chemos, th’ obscene dread of Moab’s sons, Peor his other name, when he enticed Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, To do him wanton rites which cost them woe.” The later names in the list gathered from Col. Rawlinson’s readings, are chiefly interesting because they occur in the Sacred Scriptures, for the most part in connexion with Babylon at the time of its approaching ruin. As we believe, however, that there is some doubt upon their recognition, and as we have nothing of importance to say upon them, we dismiss them with this slight notice. Direct representations of idols are not common in the Assyrian sculptures. The most remarkable is one assigned to a late period, in which Assyrian warriors are carrying images in procession. The solemn ceremonial manner in which they are borne seems to forbid the notion that has been suggested, that these are the idols of a conquered people borne in triumph by the victors ; since we know from Scripture that it was the Assyrian custom to destroy with contempt the gods of their conquered enemies. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire : for they were no gods 88 ASSYRIA. but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone : therefore they have de- stroyed them. 2 Kings xix. 17, 18. And in a bas-relief from Khorsabad, representing the plunder of an Armenian town, Assyrian warriors are seen engaged in chopping, limb from limb, a human figure, which appears intended for an idol.* We should suppose the figures in the procession, there- fore, to be the gods worshipped by those on whose shoulders they are carried, especially as Holy Scrip- ture alludes to such a mode of carrying the idols, in immediate connexion with the Babylonian Bel and Nebo, and in contrast with the degrading manner in which they were to be transported into captivity. * The soldiers of Alexander tore limb from limb the statues that they found in the sack of Persepolis ; but that was the result of brutal violence mingling with a cupidity that envied the possession of the precious metals of which they were composed. (See Q. Curt. v. 6.) The incident de- picted on the bas-relief was an orderly division of the object, as appears from the scales in which the parts were to be weighed. The marks near the neck of the prostrate figure do not represent blood, but merely indicate that the stone of the bas-relief has suffered injury there. WORSHIP. 89 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopetb, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle : your carriages were heavy loaden ; they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith ; and he malceth it a god : they fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder , they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth ; from his place shall he not remove : yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Isa. xlvi. 1-7. The Apocryphal epistle of Jeremy, which, though not of canonical authority, is yet of undoubted antiquity, (See 2 Maccab. ii. 2,) contains many in- teresting particulars concerning the gods which, in his day, were worshipped at Babylon. Among these the practice represented in this bas-relief is mentioned. “ Now shall ye see in Babylon gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood, borne upon shoulders , which cause the nations to fear. . . They are borne upon shoulders, having no feet, whereby they declare unto men that they be nothing worth.” (Baruch vi. 4, 2Q.) In this procession four idols are represented, each carried on the shoulders of four men ; we do not, however, see the whole, for the' scene is but a frag- ment ; the foremost quaternion was preceded by one at least, (how many more we know not), for the two hinder porters, and the extremity of the platform which they carry, are seen at the edge of the slab. The first then that appears is a female clothed in a long robe, of a pattern somewhat like our plaids, the hair flowing down on the shoulders in two masses of curls ; she wears a square mitre, embraced by three pairs of horns, and crowned above with a 90 ASSYRIA. star or sun. She is seated in a straight high-backed chair, sidewise to the spectator, but with the face turned towards us in full. In her right hand is a fan, and in her left a thick ring. The second figure is also a female, almost exactly identical with her predecessor. She is, however, in profile ; her square mitre has only one horn on each side, and the fan in the right hand is replaced by an object not very clear, but resembling a massive oval ring. The third idol is not more than half-size, a stand- ing figure, at the front of a box or shrine, slightly projecting at the top, and reminding one of the box often used to shelter a clergyman while performing the burial service in bad weather. This box is placed on a high chair, the back of which is sur- mounted by a ball. The idol is only partially ex- posed, but it is beardless, and therefore female ; appears to have a round cap, destitute of horns ; is clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and bears in the left hand a ring, in the right an uncertain object. There are trifling variations of form in the chairs or thrones of all these three. The fourth is a male figure in the act of walking ; he is clothed in a tunic of similar pattern, reaching to the knees, his arms and legs bare ; like the goddesses, he is girt with a broad girdle. His head is uncovered, his hair and beard copious, and curled in the usual manner ; two pairs of horns, of bovine form, spring from his head, and project in a double curve, before and behind. His right hand wields an axe, his left grasps, by the middle, three waved WORSHIP. 91 beams, representing, in the manner afterwards fa- miliar in the Greek and Roman representations of Jove, the lightnings or thunderbolts. These figures agree very nearly with the deities which Diodorus tells us were worshipped in the great temple at Babylon, and whom he names Belus, A era, and Rhae. The first of these was in a walk- ing posture, the second standing ; the third, seated in a chair of gold. We may suppose one of the females to have been Mylitta, Beltis, or Astarte, but which of them, and who are represented by the other two we cannot determine. It is possible, that, in the later times of the empire, the attributes, and even the names, formerly united in one divinity, may have come to be assigned to separate deities, and that these appellations Beltis, Mylitta, and Astarte, may, at one time, have been synonymous, and at another, distinct. There is a remarkable representation, not un- common on the monuments, even of the early period, which appears to symbolise the supreme Deity. It is a circle furnished with the expanded wings of a bird, within which is placed a human figure, crowned with the sacred or bull-horned cap, but merging from the waist downward into the spread tail of a bird. This seems the only object to which the act of worship is represented. “ The king is generally standing or kneeling beneath this figure in the circle, his hand raised in sign of prayer or adoration. . . . The same symbol is also seen above him when in battle, and during his triumphal return. It is never represented above any person of inferior rank, but 92 ASSYRIA. appears to watch especially over the monarch, who was probably typical of the nation. When over the king in battle, it shoots against the enemies of the Assyrians an arrow, which has a head in the shape of a trident. If it presides over a triumph, its action resembles that of the king, the right hand being elevated, and the left holding the unbent bow ; if over a religious ceremony, it carries a ring, or raises the extended right hand.”* Sometimes the human bust is not seen, the circle furnished with ydngs and tail, or with wings alone, seeming to be substituted for the more complete form. Symbols, more or less closely resembling these, are common, not only on Chaldaic monuments, but also on those of Persia, of the Achsemenian dynasty, and even on those of Old Egypt. Mr. Yaux states that the figures represent on the Persian sculptures the beings called Eerohers, tutelary spirits or angels; the supposed prototypes or representatives of every reasonable being that was destined to appear upon the earth. It is remarkable that spiritual beings of high power and authority seem spoken of in the Book of Daniel, as having peculiar guardianship, either for good or evil, over nations ; but the very limited ex- * Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 447. . WORSHIP. 93 tent of our acquaintance with the angelic world, pre- cludes almost any attempt to explain passages so enigmatical. It is the part of humble faith to receive the revelations of the Spirit of God, whether we can explain them or not.* But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days : but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia : and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth : and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince. Also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. Dan. x. 13, 20, 21 ; xi. 1 ; xii. 1. The notion of guardian deities seems to have been familiar to the Assyrians long before the rise of the Persian monarchy, as we have seen in Col. Raw- linson’s readings of the inscriptions. Assarac or Asshur was the tutelary of Assyria ; it is therefore no wonder that Assyrian worshippers should assign to him the chief place in the national honour, and even address him as the principal of the gods ; and thus the cha- racters, which at first seem inconsistent, of supreme deity, and Feroher or guardian angel, might easily be united in him who was figured under the symbol of the god of the winged circle. There is, however, another object commonly pre- sent in scenes representing religious homage ; and * I would refer the reader to some interesting observations on this sub- ject in an article entitled “ The Ministry of Angels,” in Kitto’s Journal of Sacred Literature for January, 1852, pp. 296, 297. 94 ASSYRIA. that occupying a position immediately before the wor- shipper ; or, if there be two associated worshippers, then between them as they stand face to face. It is commonly called “ the sacred tree,” and appears to have been originally intended for the long twining stems of the honeysuckle trained into a regular form, and studded with its graceful flowers,* Sometimes, however, other flowers and fruits, of conventional forms, and fir cones, took the place of the original blossoms. Mr. Fergusson, in his learned treatise on Assyrian architecture, thinks this to be the object of idola- trous homage already alluded to, the Asherah (mttfN) of the Scriptures, commonly rendered “ groves.” After referring to an opinion of an eminent philo- loger, D. Margoliouth, formed without any know- ledge of this Assyrian emblem, that the Asherah was a symbolical tree, representing the host of heaven, — he adds : “ The proof, however, of the matter must rest with the Bible itself ; but I think no one can read the passages referring to the worship of the groves, without seeing that they do not mean a group of trees, but just such an emblem or idol as this.” He then cites many passages bearing on the question, particularly 1 Kings xiv. 23, where “groves” are spoken of as “built” 6 1 under every green tree;”— 2 Kings xxi. 7, where Manasseh is described as setting a graven image of the grove in * Sir A. Burnes, in his Journey from India to Tartary and Persia, through Cabool, (i. 217,) noticed a hedge of honeysuckles near Koondooz, which delighted him, because he had never before seen the flower in the east. WORSHIP. 95 the temple ; lb. xxiii. 6, 15, where Josiah brings out the grove from the house of the Lord, and burns the grove that Jeroboam had made at Bethel. He further insists on the manner in which graven and molten images are grouped with groves, leaving little doubt that they were considered one and the same thing; and finally concludes that Asherah represents “ the host of heaven, or all the stars, except the planets.” * The king is frequently represented as worshipping before the sacred tree, beneath the Feroher or guar- dian deity in the air. He sometimes stands, some- times kneels on one knee, with open hands, one of which is uplifted, as in prayer. Occasionally two * The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis, 301, et ?eq. 96 ASSYRIA. kings are represented, one on each side of the tree, towards which they look ; but as they are the exact counterparts of each other in dress, countenance, and position, they may be supposed to he merely a duplicate image of the same person and action. Be- hind the king when thus engaged, stands a figure of singular appearance. He is clothed in a long fringed robe, sometimes elaborately embroidered, and com- monly wears a round cap, embraced by one, two, or three pairs of horns, formed like those of a bull, which, springing from each side, curve round to the front, where the points of all nearly meet. The horns have this peculiarity, that they do not project from the head, but continue in contact with the cap through their whole length. This sacred or horned cap we shall frequently have occasion to mention. Sometimes the summit of the cap is plain, at others it is finished by an ornament resembling a trident or a fleur-de-lis. The figure is further distinguished by two pairs of eagle- wings, which spring from the shoulders, one pointing upward, the other downward. These four wings seem characteristic of the sacred person before us, by which he may always be identified ; some or other of his accompaniments are from time to time lacking, according to the occupation in which he is engaged; but the wings are, with scarce an ex- ception, always present, though sometimes only one of each pair is depicted. We think there can be no doubt that these cha- racters are intended to represent the priestly office. Figures so pourtrayed attend the king when he wor- WORSHIP. 97 ships before the sacred tree, and hold sacred sym- bols ; the most common of which is the cone of the pine-tree elevated in the right hand, and a little basket suspended in the left. Occasionally the cone is exchanged for a branch bearing pine-cones and flowers alternately, for a branch of honeysuckle, for a bunch of pomegranates, or an ear of barley. And instead of the basket, the priest sometimes carries a mace, or bears on his left arm, a goat, a fallow deer, or a lamb. Sometimes one on each side of the tree, holds up a goat in the air by the hind leg : at an- other time one carries a wide flat tray on his head ; and at another he holds two ostriches by the necks. Sometimes two priests, without the king, are seen engaged in worship before the sacred tree, presenting the pine-cone and basket, or kneeling on one knee with outspread hands ; and occasionally they sur- round the king, with the same sacred emblems, in company of the eunuchs and officers of the court when he sits in state on the royal throne. Priests are frequently represented as holding or slaying imaginary or symbolic animals ; — perhaps a sphinx, which the priest holds by one fore paw raised high, and prepares to strike with a sword. It is observable that this design, which occurs in the embroidery on a robe, answers to another, almost exactly the same, except that the priest is without wings. In one instance, figured in the embroidery of the royal robe, a priest is seen holding in each hand a lion by one of its hind legs, while the animals are each seizing with talons and teeth a bull by the F 98 ASSYRIA# WINGED PRIEST. WORSHIP. 99 throat. The figure has the peculiarity of being drawn in full face, instead of profile, and the head, which has no cap, is furnished with two crescent- horns. Generally the winged priests are bearded men ; but in one or two instances beardless figures are so represented, which, from the contour of the features, seem not to be eunuchs, but women. Two of these are seen over the sacred tree, similarly robed, capped , and winged to the priests, and bearing daggers stuck in the girdle ; each holds the right band open and elevated, and grasps a rosary or garland in the left. Another holds two sphinxes by one hind leg in each hand, which turn their heads to look at her. Another is encircled by a sort of chain or guilloche of inter- twined bands, which she holds up in her hands ; it seems to be fastened to fetters around her wrists and ankles, and is attached to each wing. These may possibly be eunuchs after all. We feel inclined to associate with the sacerdotal office, also, another figure very common in the sculptures, which has attracted considerable atten- tion,— the man with the head of a vulture. It was at first thought that this represented the Nisroch, in whose temple Sennacherib was slain, after the mi- raculous destruction of his army. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword : and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. 2 Kings xix. 36, 37. This conclusion originated in the supposition that 100 ASSYRIA. Nisroch, ‘"pc)}, is derived from neslier, *^3, an eagle , which is very doubtful, even if we do not receive Col. Rawlinson’s notion of the identity of Nisroch with Assarac. The vulture-headed figure is certainly not a god at all ; in every other respect than the head it agrees with the priests already described ; it wears the same garments, carries the same symbols, the cone and basket, and performs the same actions, whether of worship or of the slaughter of symbolic animals. But the identity of office between the two forms is indubitably shown by two figures embroidered on the robe of a king.* Each occupies a square compartment, the one an- swering to the other as a pair. Each kneels on one knee, holding the pine-cone and basket, each is four- winged, nor is there any difference between them except that the one is vulture-headed, the other is human and wears the sacred one-horned cap. Occasionally, as in a bas-relief from Khorsabad,f the two forms are associated in worship. The vul- ture-priest carries the cone and basket, while behind him stands a diademed priest with a pomegranate branch, and the right hand uplifted. The occipital ridge-like crest shows that the bird intended to be represented is the Egyptian Vulture ( Neophron percnopterus ), as a glance at the figure in Mr. Gould’s magnificent “ Birds of Europe ” will prove. This is the common vulture of Western Asia and North Africa, where it is called by the Arabs Rachamah. This is manifestly identical with the norh Deut. xiv. 17, translated “ gier-eagle;” * Layard’s Mon. of Nin. pi. 50. t Botta, pi. 74 and 75. WORSHIP, 101 another proof that the Assyrian figure has no con- nexion with VULTURE-HEADED PRIEST.. We would venture to suggest the probability that both the wings and the vulture-head were parts of 102 ASSYRIA. the priestly dress, so formed as to be put on or off as occasion required.* What was the purport of the individual symbols or utensils, used in the religious services, so fre- quently depicted on the monuments, it would be difficult if not impossible now to ascertain. The cone of the cypress and the honeysuckle tree were connected with the worship of Mylitta, the oriental Venus, to whom the pomegranate among fruits was sacred ; no blood was offered to her, but living ani- mals of the male sex, especially kids. The presen- tation of a branch of flowers and fruits, so frequent in these acts of adoration may be alluded to in a passage of Sacred Writ which has given rise to some conjecture among critics. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, 0 son of man ? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here ? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger : and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Ezek. viii. 17. The basket commonly carried in the left hand of the ministering priest may possibly have contained incense, or else the cakes of dough which formed a prominent part of the offerings in the worship of Venus. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Jer. vii. 18. * Herodotus tells us that the oriental Ethiopians in Xerxes’ army wore on their heads masks made of the skins of horses’ heads, stripped off with the ears and mane ; the mane serving for a crest, and the ears standing erect. — Herod, vii. 70. WORSHIP. 103 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without our men ? Jer. xliv. 19. The classic writers inform us that the offering of cakes made of flour, salt, honey, and oil, was a cus- tom of great antiquity, and preceded (hut in this they were mistaken) the use of animal sacrifices. Horace says, — “ A graceful cake, when on the hallowed shrine Offer’d by hands that know no guilty stain, Shall reconcile th’ offended powers divine, When bleeds the pompous hecatomb in vain.” Ode xxiii. We might also mention the twelve cakes or loaves of shew-bread, which constantly stood upon the golden altar in the tabernacle and temple of Je- hovah. But what is more to the purpose is, that Homer repeatedly informs us that the cakes offered in sacri- fice were presented in baskets. Thus, in Nestor’s sacrifice to Pallas, on the occasion of the visit of Telemachus, Aretus brought A laver in one hand, with flowers emboss’d, And in his other hand a basket stored With cakes. Cowper’s Odyss. iii. 550. And Penelope, in the absence of her son on the same errand, A basket stored With hallowed cakes to Pallas off’ring, pray’d. Ibid. iv. 919. The Institutes of Menu declare (vi. 54) a basket 104 ASSYRIA. made of reeds to be a fit vessel for receiving the food of Brahmins devoted to God. Whatever the application of the sacred basket may BASKETS. have been, it was one of the most indispensable utensils of the Assyrian worship. It appears to have been square, and about as deep as wide, that is, about five inches; with a handle apparently of wire passing in a bow from one side to the opposite. In the earliest forms, as on the Nimroud sculptures, it was gene- rally either plain, with a narrow elegant border, or else ornamented with an embossed representation of the worship to which it was consecrated, the sides displaying figures of priests over the sacred tree. At a later epoch, as at Khorsabad, it took the ap- pearance of plaited or interwoven work, like matting in texture. But probably it was always formed of metal, and this pattern may have been given in allusion to the original rude basket of wicker, which may have been used in primitive times. Here we WORSHIP. 105 occasionally see it of a different form, being narrow, and deep, and rounded at the bottom. HUMAN-HEADED LION. Before we close this very imperfect notice of the Assyrian idolatry, as gathered from the monuments, we must speak of the strange compound animal forms that occupy so prominent a place on them. They who have looked upon the gigantic human-headed winged lion and bull, that now adorn the great lobby of the British Museum, may conjecture the imposing effect produced by such colossal guardians when sta- tioned at either side of the portals that opened into every hall of the temple-palaces of Assyria. Carved 106 ASSYRIA. in bold, almost full relief, their muscular well-knit limbs, their gigantic dimensions towering to twice the stature of man, their expanding eagle-pinions, and the awful majesty of their human countenances as they frowned down from their imposing elevation upon the spectators, must have impressed upon the latter a deep feeling of the greatness and sacredness of the beings they were intended to adumbrate. But what ideas were intended to be conveyed by these strange mythic forms ? Were they idols in the strict sense, objects of direct adoration? Some have thought they were. Others have considered them rather as embodiments to sense of abstract qualities, intellect, strength, ubiquity. The emblem which shadowed forth in vision to the Jewish prophet the Babylonian kingdom, might suggest, — especially remembering that in other cases, as those of the Persian ram and the Macedonian goat, nationally recognised emblems were so chosen,— that under these monstrous combinations of heterogeneous forms was couched a symbolic representation of the Assy- rian empire, of which the Babylonian was but a sort of reproduction. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings : I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. Dan. vii. 3, 4. It seems manifest that they were not gods. Their proper position at the entrance-gates of the edifices, and not in the sanctuaries or adyta , their absence from the scenes which represent worship, and the rela- WORSHIP. 107 tions which they sometimes sustain to the priests, show this. In the ornamental embroidery of a royal robe there is represented* a vulture-headed priest who runs up to meet a human-headed, winged lion, adorned with the sacred three-horned cap, and seizes him by the fore -paw, while with the other hand he prepares to strike the gigantic monster with a flexible weapon, somewhat like an india-rubber life-preserver. The fear depicted in the countenance of the bearded monster, as he draw7s himself strongly but vainly back from the grasp of his assailant, contrasts strikingly with the rage and eagerness conveyed by the aspect and action of the latter. A similar scene is depicted in another part of the robe,|' with a slight variation ; the lion-man is looking over his shoulder, as if imploring help from behind. In a hunting-scene, likewise embroidered, J the king in his chariot shoots a wild bull ; before him a vulture-priest has pursued and caught by the tail a human-headed, winged lion, and is smiting him with a mace. The strange prey looks back and strives to escape, while another in the distance gallops off, glancing back at his fellow’s danger. These representations are conclusive that divinities were not intended by the compound animals ; and we can hardly suppose that the artist would have depicted them on the royal robes as subject to such indignities, if they had been considered as emblems of the nation itself. * Layard’s Mon. of Nin. pi. 45. + Ibid. pi. 48. f Ibib. pi. 49. 108 ASSYRIA. The similarity of these forms to the cherubim, seen in vision by Ezekiel, has been often noticed ; and it is the more worthy of remark, because that vision was seen by that prophet “ in the land of the Chal- deans, by the river Chebar,” at no great distance from the mighty city, which, with its sculptured bas- reliefs and magnificent imagery, was in all probabi- lity familiar to his gaze. And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance ; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet : the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot : and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides ; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another ; they turned not when they went ; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side : and they four had the face of an ox on the left side ; they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces : and their wings were stretched upward ; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward : whither the spirit was to go, they went ; and they turned not when they went. As for the likeness of the living crea- tures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appear- ance of lamps : it went up and down among the living creatures ; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Ezek. i. 4 — 14. This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar ; and I knew that they were the cherubims. Every one nad four faces apiece, and every one four wings ; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves : they went every one straight forward. Ezek. x. 20—22. WORSHIP. 109 It is not said how he “ knew that they were the cherubim but, as a priest, Ezekiel must have been familiar with those which were graven on the walls {2 Chron. iii. 7) of Solomon’s temple, which were carved with palm-trees and open flowers upon the doors, and which were interchanged with oxen and lions on the bases of the brazen lavers (1 Kings vi. 32-35; vii. 29, 36); and he must have often heard of those gigantic forms which expanded their wings above the ark within the Holy of Holies. And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub : from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits. And the other cherub was ten cubits : both the cherubims were of one measure and one size. The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub. And he set the cherubims within the inner house ; and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall ; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cherubims with gold. Kings vi. 23 — 28. But much earlier than Solomon’s time the forms of the cherubim were known to Israel; for they were placed upon the mercy-seat within the tabernacle soon after the departure from Egypt. And it is remarkable that while the most minute directions were given for the construction of the tabernacle, the altars, the utensils and vessels of the sanctuary, and the vestments of the priests, no such particularity is observed in the command to make the cherubim. The simple behest, — “ Thou shalt make two cheru- bim of gold,” seems indubitably to imply a knowledge of the form already existing. And wdience came 110 ASSYRIA. that knowledge, if it was not handed down by tradi- tion from those who before the flood had seen the awful forms that stood at the eastern entrance of the garden of Eden, guarding the access to the Tree of Life. These compound animal forms were common to the nations of antiquity. In Egypt, under the form of sphinxes, they were placed at the entrances of their temples, sometimes in long rows or avenues, as in that grand one leading from the Temple of Luxor to that of Karnak. At Persepolis, at Babylon,* and at Nineveh, they stood at the portals of the magni- ficent palaces. At Ellora, in India, they are seen in an ancient temple of surpassing grandeur; and the Greeks and Romans borrowed and preserved similar mysterious forms. The very extensive prevalence of this idea around the cradle of the human race, and the very remote antiquity to which it may he traced, — for in Egypt it must have been embodied almost immediately after the deluge, — seem to point to an antediluvian origin. And we cannot but concur in the opinion expressed by the learned Rosenmuller on Exod. xxv. in his Scholia. “ The Cherubim,” observes this critic, “ were fictitious [symbolic ?] animals, compounded of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, as described in Ezek. i. 6, et seq . It is stated (Gen. iii. 24) that they were placed by God as the guards of Paradise. Hence the cherubim came to be symbols of sacred * Berossus describes many of these compound forms, and says that de- lineations of them were preserved in the Temple of Bel at Babylon. — See Cory’s Anc. Frag. p. 24. Ed. 1832. WORSHIP. Ill things and places, which it was not lawful to approach. The sphinxes of the Egyptians, the dragons of the Greeks, and the griffins of the Indians and northern nations of Asia, are similar both in form and signi- fication to the cherubim of the Hebrews. For they, also, are described as fictitious winged creatures, compounded from various animals, and guardians of things or places to which access was forbidden. _ Great wisdom was frequently ascribed to them ; and this was especially the case with regard to the sphinxes, — animals having the face of a man, the body of a lion or ox, and the wings of an eagle.” If then we suppose these various combinations of diverse animal forms to have been conventional em- bodiments of the angelic cherubim, we may possibly find in this suggestion an explanation which will meet all the circumstances in which they are represented. The leading idea appears to be that of guardianship over sacred places. This was expressly the office of the cherubim at the gate of Eden ; they precluded intrusion into the garden ; “ they kept the way of the tree of life.” Their position over the ark of the covenant, both in the tabernacle and in the temple, overshadowing it with their wings ; their portraiture all over the walls within the oracle ; on the veil that screened the most holy place in both the tabernacle and the temple ; on the door of the oracle ; on the door of the temple ; and on the curtains of the taber- nacle,— forbad intrusion. In the temple they were sculptured on the ten lavers (1 Kings vii. 29, 36), in which the sacrifices of burnt offering were washed (2 Chron. iv. 6), but not on the brasen sea , in which m ASSYRIA. the priests washed their own persons. The distinction here is remarkable, and strongly shows the superior sacredness of the former. In the visions of Ezekiel the cherubim appear as the body-guard of the God and King of Israel, surrounding and supporting His throne ; and in the remarkable apostrophe to the Prince of Tyre in the same prophet, where he is addressed as “ the anointed cherub that covereth,” though we are not informed what he “ covereth,” yet the word is the same as that applied to the action of the cherubim, covering or overshadowing the mercy-seat, and undoubtedly conveys the same idea. In Egypt the sphinx couched before the pyramids, the sacred tombs of her early kings, and guarded the gates of her palace-temples. In India, Persia, and Assyria, the ordinary office of these magnificent forms was the same, and was thus perfectly in accordance with what we suppose to be the leading idea of the cherubim, that of guarding the sacred mysteries. In the curious representations of compound forms on the embroidered robes of the king, some of which we have already noticed, perhaps the same idea may be discovered. They most ordinarily occur in contest with men, and the latter invariably are the victors. The men so depicted are always clad in the garb of priests, and are usually represented between two cherubic figures, forcing their way ; or as having over- come, and holding them up in triumph by the hind- feet. Perhaps this is intended to express the right of the priestly caste to enter into the most sacred places, and to explore those mysteries, which the WORSHIP. 113 cherubim were supposed to guard. The curious hunting-scene, already noticed, in which are two lion-cherubs attacked by a vulture-headed priest, may perhaps signify the boldness of the monarch in exploring sylvan regions, and uninhabited recesses, which superstition had invested with a sort of awful sacredness ; or his success in penetrating them in spite of the dangers by which they were defended. In Shalmaneser’s naval expedition, depicted at Khor- sabad, the winged bull and the bull-cherub* accom- pany the fleet, where we may easily suppose the meaning to be the inviolability or invincibility as- sumed to belong to this armada. At the same time these figures are occasionally depicted in circumstances which it is difficult to ac- count for, even on this explanation. In the em- broidery of a robe at Nimroud,f there is a winged bull, looking back, between two sphinxes, each of which raises one fore-paw on the bull’s body. We might suppose this to express the cherubic guardians forbidding the entrance of some being symbolized by the winged bull. But behind one of them rears up an enraged lion, and strikes the sphinx with his open paw, the meaning of which we cannot pretend to understand. Priestly attributes seem, sometimes, assigned to the compound beings. The sacred horned cap is usually worn by the lion- and bull- * Many of the allusions to the Cherubim imply the prominence of the bovine form, so that some authors have called the Cherub of the Hebrews, a winged bull. (Wait’s Oriental Antiquities, 1 G 1 ). The ox is called Cherub iron in Ezek. x. 14 ; and the root of the word in Syriac means in its primary sense, to plough. t Layard, Mon. of Nin. pi. 8. 114 ASSYRIA. cherub ; though in those found at Khorsabad this head-dress is replaced by a square or cylindrical mitre, terminating in a circle of upright feathers ; it carries the usual encircling horns, and is studded with rosettes. Generally the human-headed cherubs are beasts from the neck downward, but they are some- times figured with human arms, carrying a lamb or kid, exactly in the manner of the priests. Some- times they are vulture-headed, like the liieraco- sphinx of Egypt ; two of these in one place are attacking an ibex ; in another, one is apparently killing or about to devour a prostrate ibex ; in an- other, two vulture-sphinxes, with girded loins, attack a gazelle ; one of them has seized the victim on the flanks with both fore-paws, just as a lion might do. These circumstances appear to connect themselves with sacrifice. But still more remarkable are two figures embroidered on a robe at Nimroud.* Two bearded priests are seen wearing the one-horned cap ; they are human to the waist, with bestial hind- parts, and a short curved dog’s-tail, but the legs become those of a bird, and terminate in eagles’ feet : they have the usual two pairs of priestly wings, stand erect in a human attitude, present the fir-cone in the right hand , and hold the basket in the left. The winged bull and the winged horse are occasionally figured in pairs, with the sacred tree between them, either kneeling or rearing towards it. From the manner in which winged bulls and sphinxes are made to interchange with lions, ante- lopes, and other wild animals on the embroideries, * Layard’s Mon. of Nin. pi. 44. WORSHIP. 115 SYMBOLIC FIGURE. we have sometimes been inclined to think that the artist intended to represent real existences ; and that popular ignorance supposed such compound forms actually to exist in the remote forests, just as the vulgar believe in the existence of mermaids, &c., now. A form of religious worship, which has prevailed in Chaldea and Persia from very early times, and which is not yet extinct, is the adoration of fire. At first, light and darkness were considered as two in- dependent, original, antagonist principles, the rulers of the universe; the former for good, the latter for evil. In the address of Jehovah by the prophet Isaiah to Cyrus, nearly a century and a half before 116 ASSYRIA. he was born, there is an express allusion to this false notion, the origin of light and darkness being attri- buted to the creative fiat of God. I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me : I girded thee, though thou hast not known me : that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create dark- ness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these things. Isa. xlv. 5 — 7. The reformation of this ancient form of supersti- tion by Zoroaster went so far as to recognise a supreme overruling Deity, who had created two subordinate but mighty beings, typified by light and darkness respectively. The essence of this religion may be summed up in the doctrine said to have been given by Ormuzd, the good spirit, to Zoroaster in vision. “Teach the nations,” said he, “that my light is hidden under all that shines : wherever you turn your face towards the light, following my com- mands, Ahriman (the spirit of darkness) will imme- diately flee. There is nothing in the universe superior to light.”* * Fire-worship, associated with star-worship, must have been very widely spread in the early ages. The Vedas or Sacred Books of the Hindoos, written, according to the best archaeologists, in the sixteenth century, b. c. (or during the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt) distinctly re- cognise both. The Yajur Veda, for example, is mainly occupied with the sacrifice to the sun, or to its representative on earth, the consecrated fire. — See Colebrooke’s Essays, i. passim , and Rammohun Roy on the Upanishad of the Yajur Veda, § 10, 11. In the hymns of the Rig Veda, probably the oldest uninspired com- position extant, the chief deity, Agni, comprises the element of fire under three aspects — the principle of heat and life on earth, lightning in the sky, and the sun in heaven. The Sun is acknowledged as a divinity, but WORSHIP. 117 The adoration of the spirit of light soon degene- rated into fire-worship, the idolatry of the Guebres or Parsees. The sun, as the most glorious luminary in the universe, was worshipped by prostration, at his rising, on the summits of mountains, and on the tops of lofty edifices. Fire, also, was an object of idolatrous homage, originally kindled from the sun’s rays, and maintained from year to year, without being suffered to go out. Traces of this worship are seen in the later Assyrian monuments, as in the ac- FIRE- WORSHIP. companying scene found at Khorsabad. A slender altar is surmounted with a cone, which, being painted red, is supposed to represent flame. Before it stand two eunuchs, side by side, with their right hands elevated ; one of them carries in his hand the sacred basket. On the opposite side of the altar is a table, does not hold that prominent place in the Vedic liturgy, which he seems to have held in that of the ancient Persians, being chiefly venerated as the celestial representative of Fire. We find, however, no traces of the worship of the constellations or of the planets, so characteristic of the Chaldee Zabaism, except an occasional somewhat enigmatic allusion to the moon. — Wilson’s Rig Veda (Introd.). 118 ASSYRIA. covered with a table-cloth, on which is laid a bundle, probably of fragrant wood, to feed the sacred dame.* The service is represented as within a fortified castle or intrenched camp.f On the Assyrian and Babylonian cylinders altars of similar form are common, surmounted, like this, with the conical pyre (see Cullim. 19, 21, 22, 23, 89, 114) ; and others are seen analogous in form, but topped with figures of the sun’s disk, and of stars, instead of the fire-cone (lb. 113, 116). Mr. Layard gives an engraving of another repre- sentation of fire-worship from Kouyunjik. Two eunuchs are again seen worshipping before the sacred fire on a slender altar, while behind them a man leads a goat to the sacrifice. In this, as well as in the Khorsabad scene, there is a table behind the altar, on which are placed objects, that look like bowls containing some fruit. Behind the table are two poles, from which two serpents are suspended by the neck, which carry on their heads an appendage closely like the conventional ostrich-feather, so generally worn by the idols of Egypt. This scene, also, takes place within a fortified camp, A chariot * A fire on all the hearth Blaz’d sprightly, and, afar diffused, the scent Of smooth-split cedar, and of cypress-wood Odorous, burning, cheer’d the happy isle. Odyss. v. 68. The sacred fire of the Brahmins, mentioned in the preceding note must be maintained with bundles of palas-wood ( Butea frondosa ), each con- taining twenty-one pieces, a cubit long.— See Stevenson’s Sama Veda, (Bond. 1842) Pref. and p. 204. t See post, pp. 330, 507. WORSHIP. 119 without horses, a camel, and men and eunuchs walking in procession, are also seen within the inclosure, but seem unconnected with the religious service. Primeval astronomy had placed the serpent in the skies, and saw it with awe in the milky way, wind- ing its colossal length across the arch of heaven ; hence the close connexion of serpent-worship with star-worship.* Job seems to glance at both, when he declares of Jehovah, — By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. Job. xxvi. 13. The ceremonies of the fire-wroship were regulated by a powerful sacerdotal class, called Magi. That they possessed high authority in Babylon we gather from Jer. xxxix. 3, 13, where ar,ps^) ; iron, however, was afterwards used. An iron spear-head, found at Nimroud, is in the British Museum. Goliath’s spear-head was of iron. When the warriors fought in pairs, the shield-bearer frequently carried a short spear not more than half the ordinary length. It is difficult to understand how the long spear could have been effectively used if actually held as repre- sented in the Khorsabad sculptures, close to the butt; for almost the whole of the weight, including the head of metal, being in front of the hand, would seem to render it impracticable so to wield it. In the earlier sculptures the spear is figured as pointed at the butt, doubtless for the purpose of planting it in the ground ; a custom noticed both by inspired and profane authors. So David and Abishai came to the people by night : and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench ; and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him. 1 Sam. xxvi. 7. In Homer, when Nestor and Ulysses visit the sleeping Diomede, we are presented with a picture almost identically the same. Him sleeping arm’d before his tent they found Amidst his sleeping followers; with their shields Beneath their heads they lay; and, at the side Of each, stood planted in the soil his spear On its inverted end ; their polish’d heads All glitter’d like Jove’s lightning from afar. ii . x. i7A WAR. 255 This end could sometimes be used with fatal effect to strike a pursuer, without turning the spear or the person. It was in this manner that the swift-footed Asahel met his fate. And Asahel pursued after Abner ; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him, and said, Art thou Asahel ? And he answered, I am. And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him. And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me : wherefore should I smite thee to the ground ? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? Howbeit he refused to turn aside : wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him ; and he fell down there, and died in the same place. 2 Sam. ii. 19 — 23. So at the present day a pursued Arab continually thrusts his lance backward to prevent the approach of the pursuer’s mare, and sometimes kills either the pursuer or his mare, by dexterously throwing the point of his lance behind, which is armed with an iron spike.* The lances of ancient Persia had, instead of a spike, an ornament at the butt, resembling a pomegranate, gilt or silvered. f The Assyrian spear was frequently adorned with a little pennon, or two, attached to a ring near the head. Perhaps it was thus rendered more conspi- cuous, if used as a signal. Abarbanel and the other rabbins say that there was a streamer at the end of Joshua’s spear, when he stretched it out to the ambush behind Ai (Josh. viii. 18). It was used to * Kitto’s Piet. Bible, i. 616. t Herod, vii. 41. 256 ASSYRIA. thrust, but appears not to have been thrown. The smaller javelin, however, which differed in appear- ance from the spear only by its smaller dimensions and slighter make, was probably used as a missile. Homer’s heroes seem indifferently to have thrown WAR. 257 their spears and recovered them again, or to have thrust with them as pikes ; and the javelin, which Saul so repeatedly cast at David (1 Sam. xviii. xix. xx.), is indicated by the same word, D^n, as the spear which stood in the ground at his holster. The “ darts” of which Joab took three in his hand, and which he thrust through the heart of Absalom (2 Sam. xviii. 14), are indicated by a very different word, and seem to have been slender pointed rods of metal. The early form of the Assyrian war-chariot had a socket at the back part, in which the spear butt was fixed, the head pointing obliquely upwards. Some- times the rear spear was replaced by a staff having a fleur-de-lis instead of the usual lozenge-shaped head. No weapon seems to have been more indispensable than the sword. It was almost invariably worn by the king and by his eunuchs and officers of state, in peace as well as in war. Its place was on the left side, as among the Hebrews (see Judg. iii. 15 — 21) and the classic ancients, and not, like that of the acinaces of the Persians, on the right. The right hand, therefore, being stretched across the breast, grasped the hilt, in the act of drawing, with the thumb next the blade, just as with us, as is shown in a sculpture from Khorsabad. The scabbard ap- pears to have passed through a sort of pocket in the dress, as will be hereafter explained, from which it projected at both extremities, yet being made so fast, as that the left hand was not needed to steady it when the weapon was drawn. 258 ASSYRIA. Its position was rather high, the hilt being level with the breast ; anciently it was worn with the point sloping downwards and backwards, but at the time of Khorsabad, it had become customary to give it a perfectly horizontal direction, just level with the elbow, so that the left hand frequently rested on the hilt in conversation. With the Hebrews the position of the girded sword appears to have been SWORDS. in general much lower, agreeing with the mode adopted by the Greeks and Romans, as will be seen by the following passages. war. 259 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, 0 most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. Ps. xlv. 3. They all hold swords, being expert in war ; every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night. Cant. iii. 8. Like almost all the swords of ancient nations, that of the Assyrian warrior was straight, sharp-pointed, and two-edged ; its breadth was considerable, and continued nearly equal from the hilt almost to the point. That this was the form of the Hebrew sword appears from allusions to two-edged swords in Ps. cxlix. 6, and in Prov. v. 4 ; from the numerous passages that speak of the edge of the sword, of whetting and sharpening it, and of Goliath’s head having been cut off with his sword ; and, finally from those that speak of falling on the sword, as Saul did, and of thrusting through with it. We see it used in both these modes in the Assyrian sculptures ; the warriors are represented cutting off the heads of their enemies with it, at one time, and at another holding it in act to thrust ; the king, in hunting the wild bull, skilfully inserts the point of his sword into the spine just behind the skull, and divides the ver- tebras, with the coolness and skill of a modern Spa- nish torero . In some bas-reliefs from Kouyunjik, the soldiers are represented as slaughtering and cut- ting up sheep with their swords, using them as knives. Both the sword and spear were sometimes put to a curious use, that of picking out the cement which united the stones of a fortress, that so a breach might be opened in the wall. The flat of the sword was sometimes employed to strike with, when the 260 ASSYRIA. object was to punish without wounding; as to in- sult, or perhaps to quicken, a captive. The ordinary length of this weapon was about thirty inches, including the hilt ; it rarely extended to three feet, with the scabbard, which probably was a few inches longer than the blade. No evidence exists, that we know of, as to the material of which the blade was composed ; but analogy suggests that bronze, or iron, or perhaps both, were employed. The sword of Achilles, Homer represents as made of the former material. Specimens of very ancient swords have been dug up in Ireland and Cornwall, whither the Phoenicians are known to have resorted, and are supposed to have belonged to that people. Their form very closely agrees with that of the Assyrian sword represented in the sculptures. They consist of almost pure copper ; and they answer the question which will naturally occur to our minds, when we read of copper being so much used for cutlery in remote antiquity, — How could it have been rendered sufficiently hard to take and maintain the required keenness ? “ Tempering seems to have been the means most commonly used. The ancient writers themselves say this ; and the observations which have been made on Greek and Roman antiqui- ties, seem to confirm this account. The Irish weapons were assayed by Mr. Alchorn, who says, e the metal appears to me to be chiefly copper, interspersed with particles of iron, and perhaps some zinc, but without containing either gold or silver ; it seems probable, that the metal was cast in its present state, and after- wards reduced to its proper figure by filing. The WAR. 261 iron might either he obtained with the copper from the ore, or added afterwards in the fusion, to give the necessary rigidity of a weapon. But I confess myself unable to determine anything with certainty.’ (Archseologia, iii. 355.) Governor Pownall in the same paper, says of this metal, that it is of a temper which carries a sharp edge , and is in a great degree firm and elastic , and very heavy. It does not rust , and takes a fine polish. He indeed thinks it superior to iron for its purpose, until the art of tempering steel was brought to a considerable degree of per- fection. It is probably on account of this perfection to which the preparation of copper had been brought in consequence of the want of iron, that it continued to be preferred long after the art of working iron had been acquired.”* Sir G. Wilkinson, speaking of the ancient Egyp- tian swords, whose blades were of bronze, says that so exquisitely was the metal worked, that some of those he has examined retain their pliability and spring after a period of several thousand years, and almost resemble steel in elasticity."! The hilt of the Assyrian sword was probably made of ivory, or hard ornamental wood ; it was tastefully carved in a manner resembling modern turning, with a semiglobular top. Those appropriated to the royal use were often adorned with four lions’ heads at the part where the hilt was united to the blade. They do not appear to have had a cross-bar, or any protec- tion for the hand. Much taste was displayed in the adornment of the * Kitto’s Piet, Bible, i. 412. f Anc. Egyptians, i. 320. 262 ASSYRIA. scabbard ; it was sometimes beautifully embossed, or in some other way decorated, with minute but elaborate designs of human figures, mythological scenes, animals, flowers, or arbitrary devices and patterns. The royal scabbard was commonly em- braced near the tip by two rampant lions, with everted heads. What its material was we know not, probably leather, stained, embossed, and gilded. Homer speaks of sheaths of silver, and others plated with ivory ; an ancient one figured in the (t Museo Borbonico,” (v. pi. 39,) is of wood, covered with plates of metal, and studded with bronze. The facts wTe have mentioned above, of the height at which the scabbard was worn, its horizontal di- rection, and especially its being fixed in the girdle, instead of being suspended from it, may illustrate what is said of Joab’s sword falling out of its sheath, when he was about to kill Amasa ; an accident which could hardly have been possible had it hung loosely like a modern sword, or had the point been down- ward. And Joab’s garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out. 2 Sam. xx. 8. The sword in this case, it will be observed, was not, as usual with the Hebrews, on the thigh, but “ fastened upon his loins,” that is, the side the place where the ink-horn of a writer would be (see Ezek. ix. 2,3, 11, Heb.), and consequently agree- ing exactly with the position assigned to the weapon in the sculptures of Khorsabad. The scabbard was sometimes supported by a belt WAR. 263 passing over the right shoulder. In the early era this was narrow and plain; it is represented (Lay. pi. 24) as taking one or two turns round the scabbard, and then passing round the waist. In the Khorsabad era it was broader, and ornamented with rows of pearls as already described. (See p. 158 ante).* The use of the dagger was common at the remoter era ; but seems afterwards to have fallen into dis« DAGGERS. use. Two or three were usually carried by the king, his officers and priests, and even by priestesses. f The hilt was formed like a modern dice-box, ela- borately carved; but when there were three, two only were of this form, and the third was fashioned into the head of a horse or calf. The sheath was commonly pointed, but sometimes terminated in a calf’s head, with a tassel hanging from its mouth. All three were stuck in the girdle, diagonally across the breast, the hilts pointing towards the right shoulder, so that the right hand could readily draw * The belts worn by the Greeks and Romans were of leather, frequently ornamented with gold, silver, and precious stones, and sometimes were embroidered or embossed. Smith’s Antiq., art. Balteus. t Layard, PI. vii. 264 ASSYRIA. them.* The Romans carried the dagger on the right side, and drew it in the same way ; the reason for the different mode of drawing the sword and the dagger being, obviously, that the blow given in stab- bing with the latter is either downward, or what is called back-handed. The classical dagger ( pugio ) was a two-edged knife, commonly of bronze, with an ornamented hilt, sometimes made of the hard black wood of the Sy- rian terebinth. Egyptian daggers have been found, the handles of w'hich are highly ornamented; one in the Leyden Museum, much like the Assyrian in form, about a foot in length, has a handle of wood, thickly gilt ; that of another, in the Berlin collec- tion, from a tomb at Thebes, is composed of bone, partly covered with metal, and adorned with pins and studs of gold ; and Mr. Layard mentions that several handles of ivory, carved in the shape of the fore-part of bulls and other animals, were found in the tomb of an ivory-worker at Memphis. It is highly probable that the Assyrian daggers were formed of similar materials, and adorned, according to the custom still common in the East, with pre- cious stones and gold. One was found in the buried palace at Nimroud, resembling those of the sculp- tures in form ; it is of copper ; the handle is hol- lowed, either to receive precious stones, ivory, or enamel, f A curved falchion, somewhat resembling in form * In the engraving the artist has inadvertently drawn the daggers as if on the left side, by mistake. + Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 343. WAR. 265 the ancient Egyptian Khopsh, is twice represented in the sculptures at Khorsabad ; but it is on each occasion in the girdle of an enemy, and both evidently of the same nation. Notwithstanding that the use of the axe as a weapon of war was considered by the ancients as characteristic of the Asiatic nations,* no example of its employment in battle occurs in the Assyrian sculptures, whether early or late. Yet, as we have before stated, it was almost invariably carried in the chariot-quiver, both to battle and to the chase. We see it in the hands of warriors, employed in cutting down the trees of a forest, and on another occasion used to chop to pieces a statue (?) after the assault of a fortress. It also appears in the hand of the idol Belus carried in procession. Its most common form was single, sometimes with, sometimes without, a projecting heel ; in the forest -work of the pioneers both single and double axes (bipennes) were used. The structure was much more effective than that of the Egyptian axe, in * “ Securigerse catervae.” — Val. Flacc. N 266 ASSYRIA. which the metal-head was inserted into the split handle of wood, and hound tight with thongs ; for the Assyrian axe-head, like that of modern times, was made to embrace the handle, which passed through it. Doubtless bronze or iron, if not both, was the material of which it was made. The axe was familiar to the Hebrews, but only as an implement of the useful arts; though Jeremiah alludes to it (xlvi. 22) as employed in war by the Babylonians, and Jehovah figuratively calls Nebu- chadnezzar his battle-axe (Jer. li. 20). The follow- ing passages show that its material was iron, but they do not determine the mode of attachment of the head. As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die ; he shall flee unto one of those cities and live. Deut. xix. 5. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water : and he cried, and said, Alas, master ! for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it ? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither ; and the iron did swim. 2 Kings vi. 5, 6. Another weapon was the short club or mace, which appears to have been a stout gnarled piece of wood, enlarged and roughened with knots at the end, and small at the handle, which was carved into the head of a lion or other wild beast.* We sometimes see * The implement represented in Botta, pi. 1 3, as carried by an attendant eunuch behind the king is not a club, but a fly-whisk, disguised by the partial defacement of the sculpture. The former is, however, elsewhere seen in the hand of a warrior, driving away captives, in such a position as implies that it was freely used to repress their complaints, or to quicken WAR. 267 an implement carried in the hand, shaped much like this, with the handle formed into the head of a calf, but apparently made of some flexible materials, like the life-preservers of modern times, of plaited cord, or thongs. A much more usual form of the mace con- sisted of a cylindrical stem, to which was attached at one end a loop or thong, into which the han- dle descended, and formed at the other into a massive head, sometimes surmounted by a fantas- tic ornament, consisting of four lions’ heads united into one. It is commonly seen borne by attendants behind the king. It was not, however, confined to the sovereign, but was used by the warriors in bat- tle, as well as in hunting. Sometimes the lower part of the handle was grasped, and the heavy end was allowed to rest against the shoulder, but by far the most common mode of carrying it was with the hand just below the massive head, which would be of course less fatiguing than any other. It seems never to have been carried by the loop. The head was doubtless made of metal ; in some cases it was probably a globe, but more usually it seems to have been a circular disk, carved into a rosette. In later times this normal form seems to have been less constant, for at Kouyunjik one is represented which has a lotus flower for a head ; and at Khorsabad the head of one is made up of several fillets and globose mouldings as if turned in a lathe. their pace ; and Herodotus describes the Assyrians in Xerxes’ army as carrying with shields, spears, and daggers, “ wooden clubs knotted with iron.” — Herod, vii. 63. 268 ASSYRIA. There occurs also an ancient deviation from the usual form in Layard (pi. 38), in which the butt is armed with a rosette-disk, and the head is a ball ; it is in the hand of a priest. The implement varied in length from two to three feet. MACES. The Egyptians commonly used a mace almost identical with the Assyrian ; consisting of a staff surmounted with a disk or ball of metal, and fur- nished with a little hook (instead of a thong) at the butt, to prevent its slipping from the hand. Feridoon, one of the earliest of the kings of Persia whose names tradition has preserved, is said to have used an iron mace as his weapon in battle. It was ornamented with a cow’s head ; and was hence called the gurz-gowesir , or the club with the cow’s head.* * Malcolm’s Hist, of Persia, i. 1 9. war. 269 The mace ( gurz ) frequently appears in early Per- sian history. Homer makes one of his heroes to he surnamed Corynetes, from xopvvn}, a mace, — For that he combated and burst his way Through the firm phalanx, arm’d with neither bow Nor quiv’ring spear, but with an iron mace. II. vii. 143. The use of such a weapon, however, was evidently a matter of wonder. Repeated mention of the iron mace, as a weapon of war, occurs in the Institutes of Menu (viii. 315; xi. 101) many centuries before our era. The power of the Medes and Babylonians coming against Nineveh is poetically designated by Nahum (ii. 1), “ the dasher in pieces,” or (as in the margin) “ the disperser, or hammer,” a cognate word with that applied (Jer. li. 26) to Nebuchadnezzar, “ the battle-axe,” not improbably both alluding to this characteristic Assyrian weapon. The sling, so potent an arm among the Hebrews from their infancy as a nation (Judg. xx. 16), and used by the ancient Egyptians, never appears in the early Assyrian sculptures as a national weapon, and only once in the hand of an enemy. This exception (Layard, pi. 29) — which occurs on a slab from the S.W. palace, interesting as being the first bas-relief discovered at Nimroud, — is that of a warrior in a besieged fortress, who prepares his sling with his left thumb, probably pressing down the stone into it. 270 ASSYRIA. “ In the bas-reliefs of Kouyunjik slingers are fre- quently represented among the Assyrian troops. The sling appears to have consisted of a double rope, with a thong, probably of leather, to receive the stone ; it was swung round the head. The slinger held a second stone in his left hand, and at his feet is generally seen a heap of pebbles ready for use.”* David, it will be remembered, chose five smooth stones out of the brook, which he placed in a shep- herd’s bag, as a reserve in case the first should fail, when he assailed the proud Philistine giant. It is remarkable that the sling is never mentioned in the Iliad. It is spoken of contemptuously by Xenophon as a weapon only fit for slaves.f The throwing of stones by hand, though a much ruder practice than the use of the sling, was familiar both to the Assyrians and the enemies with whom they fought. The garrisons of besieged cities are continually represented as thus defending themselves, and Assyrian warriors from the top of the military engines cast stones at their enemies on the battle- ments. According to Diodorus Siculus (iii. 49) the Libyans carried no arms, but three spears and a bag of stones ; and even the martial Romans were not ashamed to avail themselves of weapons so bar- barous. Homer’s heroes frequently have recourse to stones as weapons ; as, for example, Diomede (II. v. 332), Antilochus (651), Hector (vii. 269), and Ajax (27 3). * Layard’s Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 343. t Cyrop. vii. WAR. 271 Such then were the weapons with which in ancient days the Assyrian warrior was furnished ; and it is interesting to compare with these, and with his defensive armour presently to be described, the accoutrements of the martial race that now inhabit the same region, perhaps the lineal descendants of the old lords of the Asian world. “ When a Koord« ish chief,” says Colonel Kinneir, “ takes the field, his equipment varies but little from that of the knights of the days of chivalry ; and the Saracen who fought under the great Saladin, was probably armed in the very same manner as he who now makes war upon the Persians. His breast is defended by a steel corslet inlaid with gold and silver ; whilst a small wooden shield , thickly studded with brass nails , is slung over his left shoulder when not in use. His lance is carried by his page or esquire, who is also mounted ; a carbine is slung across his back ; his pistols and dagger are stuck in his girdle ; and a light scimitar hangs by his side. Attached to his saddle, on the right, is a small case holding three darts} each about two feet and a half in length ; and on the left, at the saddle-bow, you perceive a mace , the most deadly of all his weapons. It is two feet and a half in length ; sometimes embossed with gold, and at other times set with precious stones. The darts have steel points, about six inches long, 27 2 ASSYRIA. and a weighty piece of iron or lead at the upper part to give them velocity when thrown by the hand.” With one exception, the substitution of the car- bine for the obsolete bow, we might almost fancy that the learned traveller had been describing one of the mounted chiefs who rode in the body-guard of Ninus or Shalmaneser. WAR. 273 WAR . (continued.) The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them : all of them desirable young men, cap- tains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with chariots, waggons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler, and shield, and helmet, round about. Ezek. xxiii. 28, 24. The use of some kind of defensive arms would doubtless suggest itself to the minds of men, almost as early as the introduction of offensive weapons, to prosecute the strife and slaughter which followed close upon the heels of the first sin. Abel, doubt- less, fell an unresisting lamb before the murderous hand of his brother ; but when the earth became “ filled with violence” (Gen. vi. 11), the weaker would naturally seek some mode of protecting their persons from the blows of the stronger, in the per- petual conflict for mastery. The nature of defen- sive arms seems to have admitted less of variety in their form and structure than that of offensive ; they may all be included under two heads, the shield and body-armour; both of which seem to have been known to ancient nations at least as far back as we 274 ASSYRIA. have any records or monuments of them. The earliest sculptures of Assyria exhibit both in high perfection. The shield varied much in form, dimensions, and manner of use. A very ancient form was a circular frame of wood, hide, or metal, perfectly plain, with a central strap in the inside, which was grasped by the left hand. It was sometimes carried at the back (the hands being engaged in bearing the bow and the spear), apparently suspended by a long belt reaching from the shoulder to the loins (Layard, pi. 10), as were the Greek bucklers at the siege of Troy.* Perhaps the es target of brass,’’ which Go- liath wore “ between his shoulders” (1 Sam. xvii. 6), was a buckler of this kind, especially as the same word is rendered in ver. 45, “ a shield .” Of equal antiquity was a circular buckler, convex exteriorly, with the margin turned out, sometimes forming a scroll. This, in its simple form, was car- ried by foot-soldiers, by a loop or strap in the middle of the inner side ; more commonly, however, it was studded on its exterior with thick conical bosses, set close together, either large and few, or small and numerous. In the former case they composed two or three concentric rows, surrounding a larger cen- tral one, which sometimes was made to assume the * But Pallas flew to Diomede. She found That princely warrior at his chariot-side Cooling his wound inflicted by the shaft Of Pandarus ; for it had long endured The chafe and sultry pressure of the belt That bore his ample shield . II v. 893. WAR. 275 shape of a lion’s head with open jaws. Probably this was used to strike and bruise an enemy who approached too near, though less effective than the spike which the Romans and Greeks sometimes affixed to the ojx< paXo$, or umbo of their circular bucklers. It was much used, but not exclusively, by chariot-warriors, and was hung, when not in use, at the back of the car. SHIELDS. These thick and sharp-pointed projections stud- ding the face of the shield give a new force to the figure of Eliphaz in the Book of Job, who speaks of the daring impiety of the wicked man, as a “ running upon the thick bosses of the bucklers” of the Al- mighty (Job xv. 26). The bossed buckler was perhaps plated with metal, and not improbably the bosses were of a different metal from the general surface, as in the shield of Agamemnon, which, in other respects also, affords us interesting illustrations of the sub- ject. While these pages are in preparation, there are in 27 6 ASSYRIA. the collection of Indian arms in the Great Exhi- bition, several bossed shields, precisely similar in form to the most ancient Assyrian ones. That of which a front view is here given, is from Kota ; it is of transparent, but very hard, deer-skin, with bosses INDIAN BOSSED SHIELD. of yellow metal ; the edge is recurved. The East India Company’s Museum contains bossed shields from Abyssinia made of buffalo-hide ; in some of these the bosses are formed by manipulation of the hide itself, in others they are of copper, riveted. “ His massy shield, o’ershadowing him whole, High wrought and beautiful, he next assumed. Ten brazen circles bright around its field Extensive, circle within circle , ran ; The central boss was black, but hemmed about With twice ten bosses of resplendent tin. The loop was silver, and a serpent form Ccerulean over all its surface twined.” The “ ten brazen circles” are exemplified by the WAR. 277 elaborate and beautifully ornamented form of the round shield in the later Assyrian era. The surface presented a number of concentric bands, usually about five or six, each of which was adorned with ORNAMENTED SHIELDS. an elegant pattern of zigzagged or vandyked lines, rosettes, lotus flowers and buds, &c.* Generally the * The Greek chieftains used shields adorned with significant devices and mottos (See iEschylus, Seven Chiefs), like the armorial bearings of modem chivalry. The device of a raging lion appears upon what seems to be a round shield in a hunting scene of the Khorsabad era. (Botta, pi. 111.) 278 ASSYRIA. inside displayed the wicker of which the framework was composed, but sometimes it also was plated in similar elegant forms ; sometimes both sides had only simple concentric bands, perhaps of different metals, and at others the exterior was of uncovered wicker with a circular plate in the middle. The diameter of these bucklers, judging from the size of the warriors who carried them, must have been from two feet and a half to two and three quarters. In the representation of an army descending a thickly wooded mountain, in a sculpture at Kou- yunjik, the soldiers carry similar shields, less orna- mented ; some of these are drawn in perspective, a thing not very usual ; and thus we see the shape to have been very convex, the outline sometimes forming the arc of a circle, sometimes approaching to a cone ; they were so borne as to protect the breast, perhaps as a defence against the branches and spinous plants of the forest through which the army WAR. 279 was forcing its way. In other sculptures of the same period this shield is figured large enough to reach from the shoulder to the knee, which would give a diameter of about three feet. Bucklers of this form, and ornamented with simi- lar devices, are now carried, as Mr. Layard assures us, by the Koords and Arabs. They are made of the hide of the hippopotamus ; but how the inhabitants of the Armenian mountains contrive to obtain the skin of the unwieldy river-horse of the African streams, we are not informed. At Khorsabad there is a sculptured scene which affords an interesting illustration of a custom more than once mentioned in Scripture. It appears to be the plundering by an Assyrian army, of a temple in Mekhatseri, a city of Armenia, perhaps the same as the modern Van.* The temple is hexastyle, with a wide but low conical roof resembling a Grecian pediment ; and the walls between the pillars and the columns themselves are hung with round shields, some of which are shown in front and some laterally. * Rawlinson, on the Cun. Insc. p. 66 {note). 280 ASSYRIA. Assyrian soldiers are seen running over the roof, carrying off a shield in each hand, and others are climbing up. The contour of these bucklers is strongly conical, and the umbo is formed by a gaping lion’s head, large and prominent. From the eagerness with which these shields were snatched away we may suppose that they were made of gold, like those in the first and second of the fol- lowing passages, in which we have a record of a very similar incident. And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold : six hun- dred shekels of gold went to one target. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold ; three pound of gold went to one shield ; and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. 1 Kings x. 16, 17. And it came to pass, in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem : and he took away the trea- sures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house ; he even took away all : and he took away all the shields of gold which Solo- mon had made. And king Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king’s house. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the Lord, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard- chamber. 1 Kings xiv. 25 — 28. Thy neck is like the tower of David, builded for an armoury ; whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Cant, iv. 4. They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in thine army thy men of war : they hanged the shield and helmet in thee ; they set forth thy comeliness. The men of Arvad, with thine army, were upon thy walls round about, and the Gainmadims were in thy towers : they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about ; they have made thy beauty perfect. Ezek. xxvii. 10, 11. The Greeks were accustomed, at the close of a war, to hang shields in their temples, having first taken off their straps, that they might not be readily WAR. 281 available to the populace in the case of a sudden tumult. No such precaution had been observed in this Armenian temple, for the loops by which the sol- diers carry off the shields are conspicuously depicted. The Grecian strap, however, was not made like that of the Assyrian shield, but consisted of a thong, which ran all round the inner margin, nailed loosely so as to make a series of loops, one of which was grasped in the hand, the arm being passed through the central band. Another form of hand-shield used by the Assyrian soldiery was four-sided and oblong, the longer dia- meter carried perpendicularly. It was made of wicker, or perhaps of stiff reeds, not plaited, but bound together in flat parallel series, with cross bands. The loop was large, and placed lengthwise. The dimensions of this shield seem to have been about two feet in length by one in breadth. Pro- bably this was the ttIAtv), described as common among many Asiatic nations, (< a small shield of quadran- gular form, a frame of wood or wicker, covered with leather, without any metal rim.” It seems, however, to have been sometimes slightly incurved at the two sides, like the Roman scutum. In the conduct of a siege, the archers were ac- companied by shield-bearers who carried bucklers apparently formed of wicker-work, of bands of reeds, or of embossed leather. These were square in their general form, but the upper margin was sometimes curved back, or had a rectangular projection to pro- tect the head from missiles. They were so large that when the bottom rested on the ground, the top 282 ASSYRIA. was higher than the heads of the warriors. A strap or loop was affixed to the inner side above the mid- dle, by which the bearer carried it about, or steadied it when in use/ The common mode of using it was to plant it on the ground in front of the bearer and archer, the latter discharging his arrows on one side, as from behind a wall ; but sometimes, as when the besiegers were close under the wall, the shield-bearer WICKER BUCKLERS. elevated his buckler towards the rampart from which the missiles were discharged. This defence, though large, was light, for the bearer always wielded it with his left hand, and generally carried in his right a sword or short spear. Very frequently, but not always, the archer was an eunuch, and his shield-bearer a bearded man. The custom seems to have prevailed only in the later periods, no example of it, or of the great bulwark, being found in the Nimroud sculptures. war. 283 This mode of fighting in pairs was not unknown to the Greeks. Thus Homer mentions — Teucer, wide-straining his impatient bow. He under covert fought of the broad shield Of Telamonian Ajax ; Ajax thrust His shield far forth ; the hero from behind Took aim, and whom his arrow struck, he fell : Then close as to his mother’s side a child For safety creeps, the unseen Teucer crept To Ajax’ side, who shielded him again. II. viii. 303. ARCHER AND TARGETEER. Xenophon, in enumerating (Cyrop. ii. and v.) the forces of the Assyrian, as well as those which Cyrus was able to bring against him, invariably couples together archers and targeteers. He describes also the Egyptians at the battle of Cunaxa, as having long wooden bucklers which reached down to the feet. Herodotus also (v. 111.) records an exploit of the shield- bearer of Onesilus, a king of Cyprus. 284 ASSYRIA. Goliath of Gath was accompanied by “ a man bearing a shield,” who “went before him” (1 Sam. xvii. 7, 41). Asa had in his army 300,000 men of Judah “that bare targets and spears,” and 280,000 men of Benjamin “that bare shields and drew bows” (2 Chron. xiv. 8); and Jehoshaphat had of this latter tribe 200,000 “ armed men with bow and shield” (2 Chron. xvii. 17). As the use of the bow neces- sitated the employment of both hands, the shield could have been of any avail only as it was carried by another ; and therefore we may fairly presume these passages to refer to the custom represented in the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Probably the “ targets” of beaten gold, placed by Solomon in the house of the forest of Lebanon, which were twice as heavy as the “ shields,” the former weighing about 300 ounces each, were of the form of the upright resting bucklers. The light-armed troops, like the uvonXoi of the Greeks, were protected only by their ordinary gar- ments or by linen armour.*' That corslets of linen were common among some of the Asiatic nations, we learn from Xenophon, who describes the surprise of Abradates the Susian king, when his wife substi- tuted a corslet of gold of her own making for his ordinary linothorax , the usual armour of his coun- try.h The Rig Yeda, a much older authority, men- tions quilted ( literally well-stitched) armour as worn in India. J The Egj^ptians also frequently went to war defended only by coats of linen or other textile fabrics, sometimes richly embroidered, like that one which Amasis sent to Minerva at Lindus, which * Herod, vii. 63. -f Cyrop. vi. J Wilson’s Translation, p. 83. WAR. 285 “ was made of linen, with many figures of animals inwrought, and adorned with gold and cotton- wool.”* At the siege of Troy, Oilean Ajax was so armed : — Of an humbler crest Far humbler, and of smaller limb was he Than Ajax Telamon, and with a guard Of linen texture light his breast secured. — II. ii. 601. Amphius also was similarly defended (ii. 961) ; hut brazen armour was much more common among the Greeks. In the early times of Assyria the warriors were sometimes very completely enveloped in scale- armour.f A coat of scales, much like those of a fish in form, hut not overlapping, extended from the neck down to the ankles ; and a hood of the same material protected the cheeks, the poll, the neck, and even covered the chin, descending as low as the chest. Over this was placed the helmet. Mr. Layard discovered a great number of these scales in the north-west palace at Nimroud. They were generally of iron, two to three inches in length, with a ridge running down the centre, exactly as repre- sented in the sculptures. Some were inlaid with copper. The weight of such a garment with the hood and helmet, must have been immense, yet the warriors fought on foot. The Persians in the army of Xerxes are described * Herod, iii. 47. f Moses of Khorene, narrating the battle between Haik the founder of the Armenian nation and Nimrod or Baal, describes the latter as clad in a treble coat of mail. Quoted in Prince HubbofFs Genealogical Catalogue, 28 6 ASSYRIA. as wearing scale armour of iron ;* but sometimes the scales were made of gold. scale- armour ( Nimroud ). Porus, the Indian king who defended the Hydaspes against Alexander, is described by Arrian as com- pletely encased in scale armour, except the right arm, which was bare for combat. His cuirass, of great strength and beautiful workmanship, excited the admiration of the Macedonians, who had never seen so exquisite a specimen of scale-mail. f Instead of the pointed scales we see, in one Assy- rian sculpture, oval plates set in transverse rows, and * Herod, vii. 61. t The earliest notices of body armour are probably in the hymns of the Rig Veda, where iron and golden armour are mentioned, (Wilson, pp. 152, 66) and in the Book of Job (xli. 26). WAR. 2S7 slightly overlapping laterally : the rows were sepa- rated by narrow interstices of the linen or cloth on which they were quilted, as were also the scales in the more common form, doubtless to afford greater flexibility. The mail-shirts in this case reach from the neck to the hips. At the later era of Kouyunjik, the common form was a cuirass of similar extent, and apparently of complex construction. It consisted of transverse rows of quadrangular plates, alternating with rows of what appears to be chain-armour, and all separated by narrow interstitial lines. When the palace at Khorsabad was built, which seems to have been only one generation earlier, the heavy-armed troops wore in general a lorica, reach- ing from the shoulders to the hips, composed of scales shaped much like those of the earliest forms, but considerably longer, and with the points down- ward, instead of upward. These long, feather-like scales, were set side by side in rows, separated by nar- row series of triangular plates overlapping each other sideways. Possibly this may have been the Phry- gian armour alluded to by Virgil, a skin covered with brazen feather-scales, sewed together with gold.* In some cases these feather-scales were square at both ends, when the resemblance to those of the Kouyunjik sculptures was so great as to sug- gest the identity of material used for both. Others wore a short coat, reaching to the knees, studded with square bosses, probably of metal or horn,j~ * JEn. xi. 770. t The Sarmatae and Quadi, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, used 288 ASSYRIA. with intervals between. The garment was some- times wholly covered with these, but occasionally they were omitted below the girdle, with the ex- ception of two or three rows at the lower border. Such an armature would afford considerable pro- tection against the stroke of a sword. cuikasses ( Khorsdbad ). A double belt, crossing before and behind, was sometimes worn, especially in latter times ; it passed over each shoulder, and the point of intersection on the breast was covered originally with a button ; but by degrees this was enlarged until it became a cir- cular disk of metal as large as a dinner-plate. It was frequently ornamented with concentric lines. No parallel is seen in the Assyrian sculptures to the stiff cuirass of the Greeks and Romans, the cttcitos, made of large plates of metal or of hard small plates of horn, planed and polished, and quilted on linen shirts. Pau- sanias represents the Sarmatse as making the plates out of horse-hoofs ; these were very strong, and almost impenetrable. WAR. 289 leather, and capable of standing erect when placed on the ground. Cuirasses seem to have been employed by the Hebrews, and by the nations with whom they were familiar. Saul in arming David for the conflict with Groliath (1 Sam. xvii. 38), put on him his own armour, including a coat of mail ; and the redoubtable Phi- listine himself was enveloped in a lorica, which we are expressly told was made of scales, like that of early Assyrian times. For the word rendered “mail,” is applied everywhere else to the scales of fishes, nttfpttfp. That Saul’s corslet was also a loose shirt of mail, seems probable from the circumstance that otherwise the same garment could hardly have been worn by the stripling David and by a man of the colossal stature of the son of Kish.* Perhaps we may suppose that the random arrow which smote Ahab the king of Israel “ between the joints of the harness” (1 Kings xxii. 34), penetrated the narrow interstice, which we have seen was left in the Assyrian corslet, between the rows of scales, where the linen or cloth of the under shirt would present a feeble resistance to its fatal point. The Book of Job (xli. 26) mentions the habergeon, or mail-coat, as useless against Leviathan. Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 14) armed his mighty standing army with the same defence ; and it was worn by the faithful few who with Nehemiah (Neh. iv. 16) re- built the wall of Jerusalem. The army of Baby- lon, under Nebuchadnezzar, is twice described by * Hector, in the Iliad (xvii. 246), could wear the armour of Achilles only by its being miraculously adapted to his great size. O -90 ASSYRIA. Jeremiah (xlvi. 4; li. 3) as clothed in brigandines or cuirasses. The Assyrian habergeon had no sleeves, or at least only such as were sufficient to protect the shoulders ; the arms were always bare. The legs were equally undefended in the earliest times ; but in the era of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik it was cus- tomary to wear closely -fitting trowsers, reaching as far up the thigh as the short tunic permits to be seen, and at least as low as the middle of the leg, where they met the boots or greaves. They were TROWSERS AND BUSKINS. bound with garters below the knee. The texture is represented commonly by crossed lines forming lozenges, which suggests chain-mail ; but figures in some of the Khorsabad sculptures, which are re- presented on a larger scale,* seem, at least if the French engraver has correctly copied his original , to warrant the supposition, that closely-fitting scale- armour was intended, j We know from ancient gems * See Botta, pis. 108 and 143. + Yet scribes, who take notes of the number of human heads brought in by the warriors, have their legs invested with this kind of trowsers WAR. 291 and other figures, that among the nations considered by the Greeks and Romans as “ barbarian,” it was not uncommon for the whole body and limbs of a warrior, nay even the whole of his horse, even to his muzzle and his hoofs, to be encased in a tightly- fitted garment of chain- or scale mail, so flexible and elastic as to display not only the shape of the wearer, but even the contour of the muscles.'* INDIAN MAIL-SHIRT. Shirts of chain-mail are still used by the Koord- and their feet with hoots, in no respect differing from those of the armed men who present the trophies of battle. See Layard’s Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 184. The structure may, after all, have been a loose open texture of knit worsted, or cotton. * Virgil repeatedly alludes to hauberks of gold chain-mail. Loricam consertam hamis auroque trilicem. — JEn. iii. 467. See also lb. v. 259 ; vii. 639. 292 ASSYRIA. ish warriors, as they are by the Affghans, and the martial races of Northern India. Some of the specimens from Lahore and Assam, now (August, 1851) in the Great Exhibition, illustrate the com- bination of plate and chain-armour which we have alluded to above as worn by the Assyrians. Some of these Indian shirts have the breast formed of per- pendicular plates of steel separated by fine chain- work ; others have, instead, perpendicular rows of narrow transverse plates, similarly separated by chain, of which the garment generally is com- posed. Greaves, — such as those on which the Greeks so much prided themselves, made in one plate of metal, bent round to the shape of the leg, and lined with felt or sponge, — seem not to have been used by the Assy- rians ; though we find them expressly mentioned in the accoutrements of Goliath, — “ he had greaves of brass upon his legs” (1 Sam. xvii. 6). Their place seems to have been supplied in the Assyrian army, both cavalry and infantry, partly by the mail-trowsers just described, and partly by buskins, probably made of leather. These were laced in front by thongs, but the leather was no doubt continued over the shin, unless the material in this part was stouter (perhaps even metal) the thongs passing over it, and binding the whole firmly to the leg. They were commonly worn at the Khorsabad era, generally reaching above mid-leg, and sometimes almost to the knee ; and they appear to have enclosed the lower part of the trowsers. Some of the nations represented in WAR. 293 the sculptures, as hostile or tributary to Assyria, wore hoots more like our own, closely enveloping the foot and leg, without any lacing or opening. The well-known story of Alcmmon, who “ drew on the widest boots he could find,” in order to fill them with gold-dust from the treasury of Croesus (see Herod, vi. 1 25), shows that these were a Lydian article of dress. No part of the armour of the Assyrian warrior is more interesting than the helmet. We here trace the progress of this defence from the simple cap to the crested and beautified ornament, which has been familiar to us from classic models ; and are enabled to show its connexion with the form hitherto ascribed to Greek invention, as well as to discern that the rationale assumed for some of its parts has been founded in error. The earliest and simplest form of head-dress re- presented, was a conical cap, without bands or lap- pets, the summit produced into a point. This was almost universally worn both in war and in hunting. It was probably made of felt,* the original material of head-dress, known before weaving was invented ; certainly not of metal, for in one of the sculptures an Assyrian warrior is seen swimming across a river on an inflated skin, quite naked, with the exception * Herodotus speaks of Scythians who lived in tents made of felt. It is generally believed that this substance was first made known to Western Europe through the crusaders, who found the tents of their oriental ene- mies made of it. Both Homer and Hesiod speak of it ; and its Greek name tiXos, was the origin of the common appellation ( pileus ) of a hat or cap. 294 ASSYRIA. of a narrow girdle around his loins, and the pointed cap upon his head . If its lightness is thus proved, its flexibility is sufficiently shown in another design, found in the central ruin at Nimroud. Here we have the com- mon form, but the pointed top is fallen over forward, as if unable to sustain its own weight. Now this is the well-known Phrygian cap, which we find con- tinually introduced as the characteristic symbol of Asiatic life, in the ancient classic paintings and sculptures of Priam and Mithras, and in short of all the representations not only of Trojans and Phry- gians, but of Amazons, and of all the inhabitants of Asia Minor, and even of nations dwelling still farther east. That the decurved point was not essential is indicated by the circumstance that some Asiatic nations retained the original form, as the Sacse, whom, serving in Xerxes’ army, Herodotus describes as having “ on their heads caps, which came to a point and stood erect.”* Some of the Koords at the present day wear a conical cap of felt closely resembling that of their Assyrian ancestors. This pileus seems originally to have had a rim which was turned up all round, and rose to a peak above the forehead; much like certain skin and woollen caps worn by the labouring classes amongst us. It is not improbable that the projecting shade of the Grecian helmet may have originated in this peak turned down ; though it is never seen so di- rected in the Assyrian sculptures. The metal helmets worn by the soldiery doubtless * Herod, vii. 63. WAR. 295 owed their forms to this original felt cap. The most common in the early sculptures is identical with it in shape, and the appearance of the upturned HELMETS. rim %nd peak is carefully copied by lines. The material of which it was composed, as shown by specimens discovered at Nimroud, was iron, and these lines were of cojoper, inlaid .* At Khorsabad a variation was in vogue, by which the general form was globose, and the summit was shaped into an abrupt slender point, rather truncated. In some of, these the frontal peak was so strongly marked as to induce the belief that the material was actually doubled there. The falling point, distinguishing what is com- monly known as the Phrygian bonnet, was the ob- vious parent of a very elegant form of crest, from which in due course grew various other modifications of form. The shape was imitated in metal, with no other variation at first than the drawing out of the summit into a long tapering point, which was then bent forward and downward in a very graceful * Herodotus (i. 25) attributes the art of inlaying iron to Glaucus the Chian, who, as he says, invented it for Alyattes, king of Lydia, b.c. 619 — 562. But we see that it was familiar to the Assyrians many cen- turies earlier. 29 6 ASSYRIA. curve, sometimes almost completing a circle. This kind is represented in a bas-relief from the central ruins of Nimroud. Then was probably suggested the bifurcation of the point, so that one extremity should curve for- ward and the other backward, and thus was invented an arched crest supported upon a short pillar. The upper edge of the crest, both in its simple and double form was then furnished with a fringe, which may have been the mane of a horse, cut short and evenly trimmed. And so was attained the familiar Grecian helmet,* — “ Whose crest of horse-hair nodded to the step In awful state and which they acknowledged to have received from a people of Asia Minor.f The Assyrians, however, seem always to have worn the hair of the crest short-cropped, while the Greeks preferred it flowing, or at all events terminated it by a lengthened tuft behind. The remains of pigment, still preserved on the bas-reliefs of Khorsabad, reveal the fact that the fringe of the crest was disposed in alternate colours, blue and orange. These suggest that the materials employed were steel and gold (or perhaps copper), and we may suppose that the original horse-mane gave place to an artificial imitation by which the * Thus we have seen that the three inventions ascribed to the Carians, the affixing of a handle to the shield, the adorning of the latter with devices, and the furnishing of the helmet with a crest (Herod, i. 171) were all well known to the Assyrians. f Herod, i. 171. WAR. 297 hairs were represented by metal wires ; and thus the conjecture of Sir Samuel Meyrick that the hair- like crest of the Grecian helmet was sometimes composed of golden wire, receives a remarkable confirmation. The later forms of the helmet seem always to have been furnished with lappets more or less de- veloped, for the protection of the ears, of which the early simple form was generally destitute. This simple pileus , however, it is proper to observe, maintained its place in general esteem, amidst all the innovations and elegancies that were introduced ; for we see it extensively worn by the soldiery, in the battle scenes of Khorsabad and Kouyunjik, to- gether with the most highly finished helmets adorned with crests. The notices of the helmet in the Holy Scriptures are very few; we can recall but two in which it appears as a Hebrew defence. Uzziah’s fighting host wras furnished with helmets ( 2 Cliron. xxvi. 14); and, much earlier, Saul had one in his panoply. The latter was made of brass (probably bronze), as' was that of the Philistine giant (1 Sam. xvii. 5, 38). We may add to this enumeration of the defensive arms of the Assyrians (though it does not belong to the same category), the guard which was worn on the inside of the left arm to protect it from the stroke of the bow-string, when the arrow was shot. It consisted of a lozenge-shaped piece of leather (probably), or perhaps of metal, which was fastened by straps passing round the arm. The form, with slight modifications, was peculiar, but constant ; and 298 ASSYRIA, the reasons for its peculiarity are not obvious. It seems to have been used only at the more ancient period. ARM-GUARD. The king himself, though accustomed to conduct his wars in person, never wore either a helmet or body-armour ; — unless a short coat, marked with parallel lines, enclosing rosettes and similar de- vices,*' may be a lorica of plate-mail, engraved em- bossed, or inlaid ; — nor is he generally represented as carrying arms, except the sword and daggers, and the bow. This last is the weapon with which he is invariably armed, when depicted in the act of * Lavard, pi. 13. WAR. 299 fighting. He was always accompanied to war and to the chase, and frequently, as we have seen, in his court at the palace, by one or more armour-bearers, officers of high rank, generally eunuchs, who carried his bow and quiver (when not in use), his mace, and his buckler. The place of this responsible courtier was, of course, close to the royal person, and he rode in the same chariot as his master, when he was so mounted. The same practice existed among the Hebrews ; thus we read of the armour-bearer of Abimelech (Judg. ix. 54) ; of Jonathan (1 Sam. xiv. 1 — 17) ; of Saul(l Sam. xxxi. 4); and of Joab (1 Chron. xi. 39), David was at one time the armour-bearer to Saul, and the choice, as being an expression of the king’s great love for him (1 Sam. xvi. 21 ), shows how honourable the office was held to be. Besides the common weapons of war, the Assy- rians employed in sieges machines for the destruction of the walls of their opponents. In their general structure and principle, these were identical with the battering-rams of other nations, but the head, at least in the Khorsabad era, was pointed and fashioned like that of a spear. Hence the mode of their action was not that of shaking the wall and causing it to fall by repeated heavy shocks, but rather that of penetrating the courses of bricks, of which they were probably composed, and thus picking, if we may be allowed the phrase, great holes in them, until at length the battlements would fall for want of support beneath. We see this result continually represented in the bas-reliefs. It appears that the iron-armed 300 ASSYRIA. beam was so bung that its blows could be directed to various points, within certain limits, at the pleasure of the engineers. Not like those engines of which Lucan speaks, the alteration of whose direction was an operation of much time and labour : — Nor sudden could they change their erring aim, Slow and unwieldy moves the cumbrous frame. Pharsalia , iii. Sometimes there were two beams in one engine, probably one beside , and not, as conventionally re- presented, one over the other. The frame-work which composed the machinery was furnished with four wheels, and the whole was inclosed by a canopy sometimes formed of leather and ornamented, at others of raw skins with the wool on, as a better preservation against fire. The beam was suspended by a rope, not borne by men. But in the earliest periods, as when the north- west palace of Nimroud was built, a true battering- WAR. 301 ram was used. It was a massive beam with a trum- pet-shaped solid head of metal, and the machinery by which it was wielded was moved on three pairs of wheels. Connected with the machine, and forming a part of it, was a lofty tower, from the summit of BATTERING RAM. which, when wheeled up to the walls, the besiegers could discharge their missiles upon the battlements with more advantage. The front part of this hele- 302 ASSYRIA. polis, or city-taker (as was the case with the spear- headed ram), was also raised into a sort of tower, — higher than the rest of the structure, but not so ele- vated as the accessory tower, — in which doubtless was the cross-beam from which the ram was slung. The upper part of this turret, as well as of the assault- tower, was sometimes pierced with a row of loop- holes for the discharge of arrows when the defence was energetic. The whole machine was covered with hurdles of wicker. No tower appears to have been affixed to the engine in the later periods, but the front part of the frame-work was elevated into a sort of dome, for the better suspension of the beam ; this construction was in use also at Nimroud. In this, as in other instances, the monuments of Nineveh tend to show how unjustly the Greeks have been accredited as the inventors of many of the con- trivances, which in fact they merely received from the East. The invention of the battering-ram is by some ascribed to Artemanes of Clazomene, who flourished about 440 b. c. Pliny alludes to a report that it was the work of Epeus during the siege of Troy ; but Homer makes not the slightest allusion to it. Thucydides (ii. 76) mentions it as employed in the Peloponnesian War b.c. 429; and we may safely consider that the first acquaintance which the Greeks had with the engine was not much earlier than the middle of that century. Moveable towers placed on wheels for use in sieges, are said to have been invented for the siege of Byzantium by Philip, about b.c. 340. But here we have indisputable evidence that both were employed in sieges with great WAR. 303 effect by the Assyrians as ordinary implements of war, many years before. We see also how little credit is to be given to the statement of Diodorus, that the long duration of the siege of Nineveh in the time of Sardanapalus was owing to the ignorance of battering-rams and other military engines, the use of which in his day was wont to bring sieges to a speedy issue.* Vitruvius and Tertullian ascribe the invention to the Tyrians, and it has been hence supposed that Nebuchadnezzar in his siege of Tyre acquired that knowledge of these machines which enabled him to use them against Jerusalem, as described by the Prophet Ezekiel. At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint cap- tains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shout- ing, to appoint battering-rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort. Ezek. xxi. 22. But Nebuchadnezzar was doubtless familiar with them much nearer home. The neglect of proportion in the drawing of these specimens of ancient art precludes the possibility of our ascertaining their actual dimensions. If we were to take as a criterion the human figures re- presented in the scene, we should conclude that the engine was no larger than a wheel-barrow, and the assault-tower scarcely equal to the stature of a man ; while the warriors fighting at the summit * For ballistes to cast stones, testudos to cast up mounds, and batter- ing-rams, were not known in those ages. — Diod. Sic. B. ii. § 2. (Booth’s vers. p. 67.) 304 ASSYRIA. strongly remind us of a sweep projecting his head and shoulders with much difficulty from a slender chimney-pot. On the other hand, if we look at the besieged city, we see that the tower considerably overtops its walls, and frequently equals its loftiest turrets, while, sometimes, the warrior is represented as stepping from its summit on to the walls. It is probable that the latter proportion is nearer the truth; for such a tower, to have been effective, must have been made to approach the battlements at least. Vitruvius says the smallest ought to be not less than 60 cubits high, and the greater 120 cubits. Plutarch speaks of one 100 cubits high used by Mithridates at the siege of Cyzicus. Some of these towers were of twenty stories, each pierced with windows (as were the Assyrian ones) ; those of ten stories were common. In order to hamper the battering-ram and destroy, or, at any rate, impede its action, the garrison let down from the battlements strong chains, with which they caught the head of the engine. The object desired was probably to hold it fast, and thus pre- vent it from being drawn back to receive a fresh impetus ; for we can hardly conceive that by any force which they could employ in dragging upwards, they could hope to sever the head from the beam. But this feat might have been effected by a well- aimed blow with a massive stone hurled down from the wall, such as we actually see sometimes in the hands of the besieged warriors ; and according to Josephus* * Wars of tlie Jews, III. yii. Which see for an interesting description of the structure, power, and form of the implement, as it existed in that WAR. 305 it was actually performed in such a manner at the siege of Jotapata. To obviate these efforts the besiegers made use of grappling hooks, with which they seized the links of the chain, and by swinging with all their weight upon them, endeavoured to drag it out of the hands of their enemies. Besides the battering and spear-headed ram the Assyrians used other military engines. Two of these are represented in a siege from Nimroud,* which, from an appearance like a twisted rope at the top of one, and several great stones in the air or open space in front of them, we may conjecture to have been catapults, but very different in form and structure from those used by the Romans, and difficult to understand. They are very tall and slender, somewhat resembling the half of an obelisk divided perpendicularly, marked with regular angled patterns, as if covered with cloth or stamped leather. They were brought up to the fortress on a mound, or embankment, formed of alternate layers of branches of trees and bricks. A man from the battlements holds towards these machines a large flaming torch. If these be indeed catapults, it shows that these engines also were of much greater antiquity than has been supposed. Diodorus and Plutarch assign their invention to a period in the third century b. c., but they are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures full five hundred years earlier than this, and their age, as well as the various devices employed to destroy and to preserve it ; all illustrative of our subject. * Layard, pi. 29. 306 ASSYRIA. invention is apparently ascribed to the reign of Uzziah, who at least adopted them. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad ; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong. 2 Chron. xxvi. 15. And at a period earlier still, they appear to have been known to the Hindoos, for engines for the de- fence of a fort are mentioned in the Institutes of Menu (vii. 75). The extent to which such artillery was used in later times of antiquity may be learned from the fact, that when Carthage fell into the power of the Romans, 149 b. c., two thousand engines for casting darts and stones were surrendered to the consul, M. Censorinus. Their power is illustrated by the fact that balistae, which threw stones of a hundred weight, were common ; and there were some that cast fragments of three times that weight. (Diod. xx. 48, 86.) From the following passage it is plain that some sorts of military engines were used in sieges before the Exodus from Egypt, though the text does not definitely describe them. Perhaps moveable towers may be particularly intended. When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them : for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege : only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down ; and thou shalt build bul- warks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued. Deut. xx. 19, 20. WAR. 307 In David’s time both battering machines, and em- bankments on which to erect them, were used ; the latter being rendered necessary because of a trench or moat that surrounded the fortress, as appears from the siege of Abel by Joab. And they came and besieged him [ i.e . Sheba] in Abel of Beth-maachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench : and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down. 2 Sam. xx. 15. We shall have occasion to mention the use of fire by the Assyrians in applying torches to the gates of besieged cities. It was, however, as often used against themselves. The wood-work of the military engines, especially when covered with hurdles, pre- sented a fair mark for the hurling of fiery missiles ; and we see from the sculptures that the enemy was not slow to avail himself of the device. In the same scene as that in which the grappling chain is used, we perceive another warrior emptying from a vessel, what seems evidently intended to represent masses of tow or bitumen in flames, upon the ram ; the nature of the substance being indicated both by the flickering waves of the drawing, and by the red co- lour, remains of which were still discernible, when it was first uncovered. To guard against this danger, the assailants pro- vided their assault-tower with projecting spouts, which are represented as pouring out water upon the adjected flames. We may reasonably suppose, as well from the object for which they were in- tended as from their appearance, that these spouts were flexible, perhaps made of leather, like the hose 308 ASSYRIA. of our fire-engines, and capable of being directed to various points ; and that they communicated with a reservoir in the top of the tower, which might be filled from the moat or river, after the engine had taken up its position. We cannot help thinking that this sculpture throws considerable light on a passage that has presented great difficulty to critics. The capture of Jerusalem, which was strongly fortified, and in the possession of the Jebusites, was thus effected by David : — And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land : which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither : think- ing, David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion : the same is the city of David. And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smite th the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. 2 Sam. v. 6 — 8. It is not to the allusion about “ the blind and the lame” that we refer ; for this we think the best ex- planation is that of Josephus, and supported by Dr. Kennicott : that the fortress was considered so strong that the blind and lame were set to man the battle- ments, in derision of the Hebrew king’s attempts, and to shout “ No David shall come in hither ! ” But we would beg the reader’s attention to “ the gutter.” The word so rendered (‘Tfjy, tzinnor ) “ occurs no- where else except in Ps. xliii. 8 ; where it is tran- slated 4 water-spout.’ There is a very perplexing diversity of opinions as to the meaning of the word. Dr. Boothroyd has here ‘ secret passage ; ’ and, in Ps. xliii. f water -fall and in fact, the result of a WAR. 309 comparison of a number of different interpretations will be, that the word means here a subterraneous passage through which water passed ; but whence the water came, whither it went, the use, if any, to which it was applied, and whether the channel was not occasionally dry, are questions concerning which no satisfactory information can be obtained. . Josephus says simply that the ingress was obtained through subterraneous passages.”* By the aid of this sculpture, however, we have no hesitation in saying, that “the gutter” was a “ spout,” through which water was poured, from a reservoir or tank in the tower of the fortress, upon the fire with which the besiegers might attempt to burn the gates, as we shall presently see was commonly done. For though it is figured only in this one instance, and that in a moveable tower, it is unrea- sonable to suppose that the device would not be used by the besieged as well as by the besiegers, for the defence of a castle-gate as well as of a military engine, especially as the facilities for obtaining a supply of water must have been greater in the for- mer than in the latter. The words “ getteth up to the gutter,” discoun- tenance the notion of a subterranean passage, and imply that the position was to be attained by climb- ing, and that it was a feat of considerable difficulty. In the pictured forts of the Assyrian sieges, we see nothing that could offer any facility for climbing in the walls, except the gateways , by the projections of wdiicli a skilful climber might be able to make his * Dr. Kitto on the passage in Piet. Bible. 310 ASSYRIA. ascent good;* and here alone would the “ gutter” be situated, as the only danger to he apprehended from the application of fire would he the wood-work of the doors. Accordingly there alone do we see it applied. A very interesting sculpture, from which many of these details are gathered, is now in the British Museum. It was found in the north-west palace of Nimroud, by Mr. Layard, and may therefore he assigned to the earliest and best period of Assyrian art. The accompanying engraving represents a por- tion of the subject, which we shall describe in detail, as illustrating much that we have said above. It seems to be the siege of a large, well-fortified city, built not on a mountain, nor in a wooded coun- try, but in the plain beside a river. The king in person assaults it ; he is represented on foot, ar- rayed in his mitre, but with little of the adornment of apparel which usually distinguishes him, and un- defended by body-armour. He shoots an arrow against the walls, covered by the short square buck- ler which his shield-bearer holds up in front of him. This functionary is enveloped in a coat of scale- * Mr. Layard has mentioned an interesting example of Assyrian agility, that occurred during his residence in the Koordish mountains. “ I occupied an upper room in a tower, forming one of the corners in the yard of the chief’s harem. I was accustomed to lock my door on the outside with a padlock. The wife of the chief advised me to secure the window also. As I laughed at the idea of any one being able to enter by it, she ordered one of her handmaidens to convince me, which she did at once, dragging herself up in the most marvellous way by the mere irregularities of the bricks. After witnessing this feat, I could be- lieve anything of the activity of the Koordish women.” — Nineveh and its Remains, i. 190, note. 312 ASSYRIA. armour, reaching as low as the knees ; he wears a pointed helmet, and carries a spear in his right hand. Behind the king stand two attendant eunuchs, one of whom holds a parasol over the head of his royal master, and carries the mace, the other bears the quiver. Immediately in front of the king a scaling- ladder has been raised, and the warriors, armed with shield and spear, are mounting to the battlements. Below, an Assyrian soldier is seen on his elbows and knees, creeping through a hole at the foot of the wall, which he appears to be excavating with his sword ; and two others in a distant part are seen crouching beneath a cavity, apparently removing the stones of the foundation. These are all probably intended to represent mining operations. At an intermediate point two warriors, clothed from the top of the head to the ankles in scale- armour, are working at the wall with crow-bars, which are dilated and flattened at the tip. With these they seek to dislodge the stones or bricks from the wall, inserting the wedge-like points of their im- plements between the joints, and prizing them out. To judge from the number of square stones already pulled out, we may infer that the operation could not be accused of inefficiency. We are thus brought to the opposite side of the city, where the battering-ram and tower, moved up to the wall as already described, are gallantly assailed with chains and fire, and as strenuously defended with grappling-hooks and spouts of water. Two warriors, in complete armour, fight from the summit of the tower, the one an archer, the other a shield- WAR, 313 bearer ; but the latter also throws a stone. The lofty front of the engine-house contains a small figure of an archer, which may either represent a soldier within shooting through a loophole, or, from the circumstance of his wearing the horned cap and flowing robes, more probably an image of the pre- siding divinity. Behind the engine, an archer of dignified appearance, with a tiara on his head, and long embroidered robes, is doubtless an officer of high rank ; he is attended by his shield-bearer, and followed by warriors in complete armour. In these as well as others, we see the head enveloped in the hood of scale-mail, already mentioned, just leaving the face bare, but closing around the lower lip. This falls loosely over the neck and throat, and covers the origin of the coat, or rather gown, of mail, which flows from the neck down to the feet, A pointed helmet is worn over the mailed hood, and the gown is encircled by a broad girdle, which with a belt carries the ornamented sword. The war-chariot of the king stands behind, in the care of two grooms, one of whom stands at the head of the horses, holding the bridle, the other stands in the vehicle, grasping in each hand the three reins. Neither of them wears head-dress or armour, except a sword in the girdle. The chariot is drawn by three horses abreast, and contains the king’s spear. Two soldiers standing behind, unengaged in battle, but well armed with bow, mace, sword, and shield, may be intended to represent a reserve, or may be sta- tioned as guards of the chariot.* * The reader may compare with the above details Thucydides’ account P 314 ASSYRIA. We will now turn to the garrison. These are seen crowding the walls, engaged in vigorous, hut unsuccessful defence. Some, as we have seen, assail the battering-ram with chains, and pour ignited combustibles on its wicker frame ; others hurl stones at their assailants, or drop more massive fragments upon the scaling ladders; others repel the flying arrows with convex bucklers, both round and square ; but the most part ply the bow, and pour down their own shafts upon the ranks below. Several, wounded or dead, are either hanging over the battlements, or are in the act of falling ; in the latter the reversed position of the long hair and of the garments, as they fall headlong, is expressed with ludicrous fidelity by the artist. One warrior, transfixed by two shafts, holds out his bow and arrows in one hand, and raises the other in deprecation, and from the upper towers women appear, with dishevelled hair and uplifted hands, beseeching mercy. The carrion-eating vul- tures hover around, and one is already commencing his obscene repast upon the corpse of a slain war- rior. To complete the story, the deportation of the captives and the spoil is depicted at one extremity of the bas-relief, where a soldier drives off three women and a child and several head of cattle. The distress of these daughters of captivity is expressed in their attitudes ; one or both hands being placed upon the head, perhaps implying the tearing of the hair; one of them, doubtless a mother, lays one hand of the devices used at the siege of Platsea (Pelop, War, book ii.) ; and those given by Josephus of the sieges of Jotapata, Jerusalem, and Masada (Wars of the Jews, books iii. v. vi. and vii.). WAR. 315 on the head of her little hoy, who walks beside her. He appears to be naked with the exception of a gir- dle, and to have his head shaved ; but the women wear the hair long, falling in waved tresses on each side of the neck; and are enveloped in long gowns, marked with a singular pattern, and girded with a thick shawl at the waist. The soldier who drives them holds up his mace in a manner which seems to imply that his prisoners had better be silent in their distress. The cattle are all bulls, of fine forms and bearing, and short horns. No representation of an Assyrian fortress has been found, nor can be expected, since the bas-reliefs were intended to record their conquests of other nations, and not assaults made by others on them. The frequent introduction of sieges into the sculp- tures, however, makes us familiar with the forms of the walled cities of the surrounding nations ; and as these are all constructed on a common model, we may conclude that either little variety existed, or else that the artists used a conventional form, which, in that case, would be of course Assyrian, as best known to them. It is observable, however, that this form differs very considerably from that de- picted in the sculptured and painted scenes of the Egyptian monuments, even when the sieges are un- doubtedly those of Asiatic fortresses. The Egyp- tian artist seems undoubtedly to have copied the peculiar style of architecture proper to his own 316 ASSYRIA. country, — the base broader than the summit of the structures, — a style of which the pyramid was the perfect exponent. In the Assyrian forts, the walls were perpen- dicular and parallel, as with us ; they were carried up to a considerable elevation,* and at the summit were cut into angular battlements. At intervals, varying in different instances, the wall was flanked projecting tower (Kouyunjilc) . by narrow towers, either round or square, which were carried up to a great height above its level. f The summit was built out in a strong projection, sometimes (as in a castle at Kouyunjik) to a re- * The walls of Nineveh were 100 feet high, and flanked by 1500 towers, each 200 feet in height (Diod. ii. § i.) ; those of Babylon were 300 (Herod.); 130 (Q. Curt.); or 75 (Strabo); those of Ecbatana in Media were about 100 (Judith i. 2). t The bas-reliefs representing the ancient city of Pinara in Lycia, found by Sir C. Fellowes, show that its walls were embattled, and strength- ened by square towers. The gateways were square. Discov. in Lycia, 142. WAR. 317 markable degree, supported by jutting stones in several series, so that the defenders were actually over the heads of the besiegers. This structure would much increase the difficulty of scaling. The turrets were battlemented like the wall. Generally there were several ranges of walls, one within the other, each defended by towers and battlements, just as there were at Jerusalem when besieged by Titus. Three or four of these are fre- quently shown in the sculptures, as rising one above the other ; but this mode of representing them is doubtless a conventionalism, arising from the igno- rance of perspective. Sometimes one or two low battlemented walls without turrets surrounded the true defences. According to Herodotus (i. 98) Ecbatana in Media was inclosed by seven concentric walls, each sur- mounting the other by just the height of the battle- ments. This would produce just such an effect as is shown in the forts of the Assyrian sculptures. The historian adds, that the battlements of the outer wall were painted white, those of the second black, the third purple, the fourth blue, the fifth red, the sixth were plated with silver, the seventh with gold. The stately towers upon the walls of Troy and of the cities whence poured forth her Grecian foes, are celebrated by Homer. The cities of Canaan at the time of the Exodus were fortresses “ great and fenced up to heaven” (Deut. ix. 1). The towers of Jerusalem were considered worthy of peculiar note : — 318 ASSYRIA. Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following. Ps. xlviii. 12, 13. And this long before the time when Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem, at the corner- gate, and at the valley- gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them. 2 Chron. xxvi. 9. We do not suppose that these fortresses, towers, and walls, were in every case built of stone. The lack of this material in the plain of Shinar prompted the builders of Babel to use brick, though the words of the historian, “ they had brick for stonf’ (Gen. xi. 3) imply that to his mind stone was the more familiar material. Even the renowned walls of Babylon, built by Nebuchadnezzar, were partly of brick, burnt and cemented by bitumen, and partly of sun-dried brick.* Hewn stones for building are first alluded to in the construction of David’s house ( 2 Sam. v. 11. See the Hebr.) and Solomon’s temple (1 Kings v. 17) ; and in both cases the architects were Tyrians. The stones which are alluded to in Lev. xiv. 40 — 45, as infected with the plague of leprosy, were probably rough unhewn stones, built up without cement in the manner now frequently used for fences, and then plastered over, or else laid in mortar. The oldest examples of Pelasgian architecture, commonly known as Cyclopean, are of this character. Nothing in the sculptures indicates that the walls were built of unhewn stones, or of such as were * Josepbus, quoting Berossus, Cont. Ap. i. § 19. WAR. 319 hewn polygonally (as at Mycenae) ; but wherever their partial demolition by the engines or mining implements of the besiegers allows their construc- tion to be shown, the fragments are always quadran- gular and parallel-sided; and hence we must sup- pose them to be either hewn stones or bricks. That structures of considerable strength could be built of bricks, the Babylonian and Egyptian re- mains prove. The ancient Greeks thought perpen- dicular walls of brick more durable than stone, and used this material in their greatest edifices, as did also the Romans. If we could be sure that the delineations of the sculptures were according to fact, we think it could scarcely be doubted that brick was the substance employed in the fortresses of the Assyrian sieges, for it would be manifestly absurd to suppose that the warriors could force out massive hewn stones by prizing them with their daggers ; though bricks might be so worked out. The jutting corbels or projections at the top of the towers may have been of timber. The ironical exhortations of the Prophet Nahum to Nineveh, warrant our concluding that even in that mighty city, brick was used in the construction of fortifications. Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds : go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln. Nah. iii. 14. Dr. Kitto has some remarks of value on the fortresses of Asia. “ Few towns of the least consequence in Western Asia are without walls, which, whatever be their character in other re- 320 ASSYRIA. spects, are sure to be lofty. As the use of artillery is still but little known, when a town has a wall too high to be easily scaled, and too thick to be easily battered down, the inhabitants look upon the place as impregnable, and fear little except the having their gates forced or betrayed, or the being starved into surrender. So little indeed is the art of besieging known in the east, that we read of great Asiatic conquerors being obliged, after every effort, to give over the attempt to obtain possession of walled towns, at the forti- fications of which an European engineer would laugh. . . However brave and victorious in the field, all their energy and power seem utterly to fail them before a walled town. The writer can speak with some degree of experience on this subject, having resided in an Asiatic town while besieged by a large body of (so called) disciplined Turks and undisciplined Arabs, and having only a very small body of vacillating and inefficient defenders. But although the assailants were as- sisted by some badly managed cannon and bombs, a high wall of sun-dried bricky by no means remark- able for its strength, offered such effectual resist- ance, that the besiegers would probably have been obliged to retreat in despair, had not the fear of starvation and the want of interest in defending the place against the lawful authority by which it was invested, induced the chief persons to capi- tulate on terms very advantageous to themselves. The walls of towns are generally built with large bricks dried in the sun, though sometimes of burnt WAR. 321 bricks , and are rarely less than thirty feet high. They are seldom strong and thick in proportion to their height, but are sometimes strengthened with round towers, or buttresses placed at equal distances from each other.”* The science, skill, and energy of the Assyrians, however, must not be measured by those of the degenerate inhabitants of modern Asia; and they would doubtless have been able to carry fortresses even though built in the strongest manner. Senna- cherib was not deterred from the siege of Jerusalem by its strength, but insinuated that he and his fathers had already succeeded in reducing cities equally mighty ; and we know that Nebuchadnezzar actually took it, after a blockade of more than a year. The walls of Ecbatana, which were built of hewn stones six cubits (or nine feet) long, and three cubits broad (Judith i. 2,) could not resist the assault of one of the Assyrian monarchs. In the later periods of the empire the simple construction of the fortresses, — a great number of slender towers along a wall, — appears to have given place to one in which projecting angles were more common, and the towers were square, and much larger in proportion to their height, which but little exceeded that of the wall.f In one of the * Piet. Bible, i. 461. t In the interesting specimen of an ancient fortress- wall, built so as to enclose a rocky hill, and hence so much like some represented on the Assyrian bas-reliefs, that Sir C. Fellowes found near Xanthus, there was “ a terrace for the passage of a guard within the battlements, and this course passed by doors through the towers ; and as the wall rose up the steep side of the hill, the terrace was formed of a flight of steps. Several 322 ASSYRIA. Khorsabad sculptures, several large square edifices, resembling castles or palaces, are represented within the walls. The strongholds seem to have been frequently built beside a river, unless, indeed, the moat or fosse be intended by the narrow water that washes the base of the wall. Still more usually were they erected on a hill or mountain, either crowning its summits, or else built around its ascent, with the apex surmounted by a castle or tower, probably of superior strength. The Canaanite forts were gene- rally mountain-fastnesses ; and that they often had a strong tower which served as a last refuge, we learn from the sieges of Shechem and Thebez. (Judg. ix. 49, 51.) The “ towered heights of Troy” are celebrated by Homer (II. vi. passim ) ; and most of the ancient Greek cities were built upon a hill or rock, on the highest point of which there was some kind of castle, citadel or tower (otxpono\i$) ; intended, partly, to serve, like those already spoken of, as a last resort in case of a blockade, and partly, to overawe the inhabitants in time of sedition. The gates were always arched, down to the Kouyunjik era, when in some instances square lintels were employed. Occasionally the archway was adorned with battlements, though only for orna- ment, as there does not appear to have been any chamber above the gate. When there were several successive walls, each had arched gateways, and sometimes several in each. The doors were always of the towers had but three walls, the inner side being left open.” — Discov. 160. WAR. 323 two-leaved. The Prophet Isaiah speaks of “ the two-leaved gates” (xlv. 1) of Babylon; these were of brass, but the frequent application of fire to the doors by the Assyrian besiegers, and the success of such an expedient clearly enough depicted, show that the doors of these towers, like those of Shechem and Thebez, burned by Abimelech (Judges ix. 49, 52), were of wood. Windows were generally pierced in the towers, and sometimes in the walls ; they appear to have been small, simple orifices, usually square, but occasionally arched. In the towers of the Khor- sabad period they occur in stories, sometimes to the number of four or five, reaching from the summit to the ground.* Besides these, the earlier towers were pierced with small round loop-holes, just beneath the battlements, whence the archers might shoot in comparative security. Statues of the king were sometimes placed in niches in the walls. A singular ornament is seen on the towers of a be- sieged city in one of the Khorsabad bas-reliefs. The fortress is built on the summit of a conical hill, the base of which is girdled by a turreted wall. The fortress itself has three walls, all towered ; and the summits of the three inmost towers, perhaps those of the Acropolis, — are adorned each with an enor- mous pair of stag’s horns, which the sculptor has * Hence we may suppose the towers to have been habitable, not like those near Xanthus (see p. 319 note), which were only three-sided. The walls also were probably crowned with houses, at least, where windows appear in them. Rahab’s house in Jericho (Josh. ii. .15) was upon the wall, and had a window which looked out on the country. 324 ASSYRIA. figured as of no less expanse than the diameter of the tower itself. The houses of the Koordish FORTRESS DECORATED WITH HORNS. mountaineers are to this day commonly adorned with the horns of the stag or ibex, trophies of successful prowess in hunting. WAR. 3%5 WAR. (continued.) Woe to the bloody city ! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey de- parteth not. The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear : and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases ; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses. Nah. iii. 1—3. When the Assyrians took the field, and especially when they sat down before a fortified city, they formed a regular entrenched camp. Xenophon — in a passage which affords an interesting comment on much that we are describing, — speaks of this as their custom from old time : “ The Assyrians then, and those that attended them, as soon as the armies were near to each other, threw up an entrenchment round themselves ; a thing that the barbarian kings practise to this day, when they encamp ; and they do it with ease by means of their multitudes of hands. For they know that an army of horse in the night is confused and unwieldy, especially if they are barbarian. For they have their horses tied down to their mangers; and if they are attacked it is troublesome in the night to loose the horses, to bridle them, and to put them on their breast- plates and other furniture ; and when they have 326 ASSYRIA. mounted their horses, it is absolutely impossible to march them through the camp. Upon all these accounts, both they and others of them throw up an entrenchment round themselves; and they imagine that their being entrenched puts it in their power as long as they please to avoid fighting.”* The earliest notice we have of a regular camp is that of Israel in their march through the wilderness (Numb, ii.), the beautiful order of which elicited the rapturous applause of the prophet Balaam, ns he beheld it from the heights of Peor. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes ; and the spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: he hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, and thy taber- nacles, 0 Israel ! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. Numb. xxiv. 2 — 6. We are not informed whether this had a rampart ; but probably it had not ; though the mention of “ the gate of the camp ” (Exod. xxxii. 26) might imply something of the kind. The “ garrison” or I made a hank against , ... I burned.” — On the Khorsabad Inscrip- tions, p. 70. WAR. 341 deaths, that doubtless often befel the warriors in these perilous ascents. They are represented mount- ing with as much facility as if they were walking up stairs, gaining turret after turret, and driving their enemies before them almostwithout resistance. Some- times the archers, taking up a commanding position on some of the precipitous heights that overlooked the fortress, — which the rocky mountainous nature of the situation commonly selected for such strong- holds frequently afforded,* — thence poured in their arrowy shower with greater advantage. Whenever it was practicable, sappers and miners directed their efforts to the undermining of the wall, or to the digging through it with their crow-bars, spears, or swords, a circumstance that indicates, as we have before observed, the frail nature of these edifices, in spite of their strong appearance. Some- times the actual dislodgment of the bricks or stones that formed the wall, in the sculptured representa- tions, indicates the latter mode of proceeding, at others an excavation was opened beneath it into the town. We know that this device was resorted to in ancient warfare. Fidenae and Yeii (4 26 and 396 b. c.) were taken by means of mines, that in the one case opening in the citadel, the other in the temple of Juno; as was also Soli, a city of Cyprus, in the Persian war, after sustaining a siege of five months. A still more common expedient was the appli- cation of fire. The warriors, having crept up to the gates unperceived, applied torches to the doors, * The reader may refer to the siege of Jotapata recorded by Josephus, Bell. Jud. III. vii. 12, 26, &c. 342 ASSYRIA. while they covered their own heads, and concealed their designs with their uplifted shields; and the Assyrian artists have delighted to depict the success of this stratagem, by commonly representing the red flames already rising above the gates, or pour- ing forth from the windows, or crowning with a many-tongued pyre the summits of the towers. Thus Agamemnon prays to Jove : — Let not the sun go down and night approach Till Priam’s roof fall flat into the flames, Till I shall burn his gates with fire. — II. ii. 464. And in their turn the Trojan hosts essay, though unsuccessfully, to fire the Grecian fleet. (II. xv.)* The exploits of the spurious son of Gideon af- ford more than one example of the same practice, as recorded in the following very illustrative passage. And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. And Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him ; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste,* and do as I have done. And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them ; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all * Compare also the prayer for Greece of the Supplicants in iEschy- lus, — Never may war .... Wave round these glitt’ring tow’rs the blazing brand ! — Suppl. 76. And the device borne by the haughty Capaneus, — On his proud shield pourtray’d — a naked man Waves in his hand a blazing torch ; beneath In golden letters — “ I will fire the city ! ” Seven Chiefs , 120. WAR. 343 the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower. And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all-to brake his scull. Judg. ix. 47 — 53. The Assyrian bas-reliefs afford counterparts of the scene thus described, so vivid and exact that we might almost suppose them to be representations of the same historic events. The besieged city, the strong tower within, the men and women crowd- ing its battlements, the fire applied to the doors, and even the huge fragment of stone dropping from the hands of one of the garrison on the heads of the assailants ; all are represented to the life, just as they are here described in the narrative of inspired truth. The army of the assaulted city often resisted the approach of the haughty invaders ; and even when driven to their strongholds, the garrison, doubtless, made frequent sallies and encountered their enemies before the ramparts. The indomitable prowess of the Jews at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, was especially displayed in their frequent and successful sallies. The details of the battle-field are depicted with grim precision by the Assyrian artists, always, however, giving the superiority in combat to their own countrymen ; and that not only in the general issue, but in every example; so that no instance occurs of an Assyrian soldier being slain, or even wounded in battle. Of course this was conven- tional : it is the same in the Egyptian war-scenes. In close combat the warrior most commonly 844 ASSYRIA. grasped his foe by the hair of his head or beard, and stabbed him in the breast or neck with his sword, or sometimes with his shortened spear. Such was the custom in Israel, as we learn from the “ play” before Joab and Abner. WARRIOR IN BATTLE. Then there arose, and went over by number, twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side ; so they fell down together. 2 Sam. ii. 15, 16. And Joab himself afterwards treacherously slew Amasa by taking hold of his beard, under pretence of kissing it, and then stabbing him. ( 2 Sam. xx. 8—10). Sometimes the warrior thrust his convex shield, studded with conical bosses, into his opponent’s face, and thus overthrowing him, stabbed him as he WAR. 345 fell. Alexander the Great, when in his fool- hardiness he mounted the wall of Tyre single- handed, is described by Diodorus (xvii. § 4) as “ tumbling down many” of his astonished enemies “ with the bosses of his buckler.” Little quarter appears to have been given in the heat of battle. We occasionally see a disarmed enemy kneeling as if to kiss his conqueror’s feet in deprecation, but in vain ; he thrusts his hand into the victim’s hair, and the sharp sword descends upon his neck. We do not see the knees of a victor grasped by the suppliant, as Homer so often de- scribes in the Iliad. The custom of stripping a slain enemy, so frequently alluded to in the same poem, may perhaps be intimated by the fact that the corpses that lie scattered over the battle-field are often en- tirely naked; though they are far from invariably so, and no example occurs in the sculptures of the act itself. It was not unknown in Hebrew warfare. Samson obtained “ the thirty shirts ( marg .) and thirty change of garments,” his forfeit to the ex- pounders of his riddle, from the Philistines whom he slew and stripped at Ashkelon (Judg. xiv. 19). David deprived the giant Goliath of his armour (1 Sam. xvii. 54); and Asahel was ambitious of taking the armour of so valiant a warrior as Abner {2 Sam. ii. 21). The Philistines appear to have stripped the slain after the battle (1 Sam. xxxi. 8, 9) ; and to have hung the armour of any enemy of renown in the temples of their idols ; that of King Saul they suspended in the house of Ashtaroth. Friends strove to pull away a comrade, when dis- 346 ASSYRIA. abled, from the grasp of the victor, but we do not perceive that the corpses of the slain were objects of contest, as they were at the siege of Troy. The slain, whether stripped or not, were gene- rally beheaded ; for the head was the great trophy of battle. On the field, the warriors are frequently represented running off with a severed head in each hand, probably carrying them to the officer in com- mand, that these proofs of their prowess might be re- gistered ; and in the triumphal return, we occasionally see the chariots decorated with heads, and the soldiers bear them in their hands to scribes who take account of their number on rolls of paper or parchment. This custom was prevalent in Ancient Egypt, as is abundantly proved by the monuments of that country. Among the nations of Asia it has always been revoltingly common, from the earliest times to the present. WAR. 347 David severed the head of Goliath, and bore it in triumph to the camp of Israel (1 Sam. xvii. 57) ; and Judith did the same with the head of Holo- fernes (Judith xiii. 8, 15). A still more remark- able example is the action of Jehu, described in the following passage. And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city, the elders also, and the bringers-up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying, We are thy1' servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us ; we will not make any king : do thou that which is good in thine eyes. Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to-morrow this time. (Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.) And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel. And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king’s sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning. 2 Kings x. 5 — 8. In 1401, when Bagdad fell under the power of Tamerlane the Tartar, a pyramid of ninety thousand human heads displayed the horrible vengeance of that vindictive conqueror. The Persian monarchs frequently have demanded a pyramid of this re- pulsive character from some town or village that has incurred their displeasure; and Sir John Malcolm tells us that the executioners exhibit such profes- sional indifference to the barbarity of the sentence, as to select the most picturesque head and most noble beard to grace the summit of the monument. “ Heads are always regarded as the best trophies of victory in the East. The heads of enemies slain in battle, of robbers, and of persons who have been 348 ASSYRIA. put to death by the royal order, are presented to the king, and afterwards deposited at his palace- gate. If there is but one head, or only a few, they are fixed at some conspicuous part of the gate ; and at the grand entrance to the Sultan’s palace (seraglio) at Constantinople, there are niches ap- propriated to this purpose. When they are more numerous, they are heaped up on each side of the gate. . . Sometimes the Oriental conquerors desire to form such heads into permanent monu- ments of the transaction ; and this is usually done by erecting pillars for the purpose, and inlaying them with the heads of the slain. There are several of these savage monuments in Persia and Turkey. The most recent known to us are the two pillars which were erected about [thirty] years ago on each side of the way, near one of the gates of Bagdad, and which are inlaid with the heads of two hundred Khezail Arabs, slain or captured in an engagement with the troops of the Pasha.”* “ In Persia it is not unusual, in time of war, for the king or prince in command to offer a reward, sometimes as high as five pounds, f for every head of * Dr. Kitto, Piet. Bible, ii. 242. t Court of Persia, p. 66. In the war between Russia and Persia, on the occasion of a small advantage gained by the latter, Mr. Morier observes, — ■“ One of the articles of capitulation was that their heads were not to be cut off ; an act which in Persian and Turkish warfare is a common custom. During this fight ten tomauns were given for every head of the enemy that was brought to the prince ; and it has been known to occur, after the combat was over, that prisoners have been put to death in cold blood, in order that the heads, which are immediately despatched to the king, and deposited in heaps at the palace gate, might make a more con- siderable show.” — Second Journey, p. 186. WAR. 349 the enemy brought to him ; and instances are on record of kings sitting in state to receive the heads piled around in heaps by thousands, and supervise the distribution of the reward. Under such a sys- tem, the soldiers will take care not to encumber themselves with prisoners, unless a higher prize is offered for a live enemy than for the head of a dead one.” It is probable that this latter alternative was the case in the Kouyunjik era, for in the battle scenes of that palace, the Assyrian warriors are depicted as dragging through the mountain-forests prisoners, whose beards they grasp with one hand, while they carry the head of a slaughtered enemy in the other. The terrible death of impalement was inflicted by the Assyrian conquerors upon their victims in all ages of their empire ; though from the rarity of the representations we may suppose that it was not very common, and marked cases of peculiar exasperation. Perhaps it was mostly reserved for the leaders of rebellion. According to Diodorus (ii. §1) Ninus impaled Pharnus, the king of Media. Astyages impaled the Magi, who had counselled him to let Cyrus live* Histiaeus, the designing Mi- lesian, was impaled by Harpagus, the Persian general, into whose hands he had fallen.-j- Three thousand of the principal citizens of Babylon were put to this horrible death by Darius, when that queenly city fell into his hands. J Perhaps we see an increasing partiality for the infliction of the cruel punish- Herod. i. 128. + Ibid vi. 30. t Ibid iii. 159. 350 ASSYRIA. ment, in the greater numbers who are represented as suffering it in the later sculptures, preparing the way for so wholesale an atrocity as that of the ex- asperated Persian. PRISONERS IMPALED, The mode in which this punishment was executed was different from that adopted by the Romans, and used with such cruel frequency by the sanguinary Nero. A sharp stake, about nine feet high, was set in a large solid foot, perhaps of metal, sufficiently heavy to maintain it erect; the point of the stake entered the breast of the victim, whose feet hung down its side, when it was erected. It is not unnecessarily to harrow the feelings of our readers that we detail these cruelties ; but to show what were the manners of the Assyrian people, and how truly the inspired prophet designated them, WAR. 351 when he denounced “ Woe to the bloody city ” (Nahum iii. 1). The artists of the monarch, we must remember, embodied these details in the sculp- tured and pictured scenes, which were to embellish his palace walls, and in the contemplation of which he saw nothing to be ashamed of, but rather subjects of delight and exultation. The same argument must be our apology for the presentation of another series of facts, shocking to our feelings, but of great value as illustrative and confirmatory of the inspired Word of God. In one of the bas-reliefs from the Palace at Khor- sabad, among many captives led away by the victors, there are two of particular interest. Most of the figures are more or less defective, owing to the crumbled state of the sculpture ; particularly in the upper parts, where few are perfect. They appear all to have been fettered with heavy manacles, uniting together the ankles and the wrists. The two alluded to, seem from their fringed and tasseiled robes to be prisoners of consequence, but they are led in the most barbarous manner. A ring or hook has been passed through the lower lip, and ap- parently through the jaw of each captive, and a line being attached to each hook, is connected to a stouter line, by which they are dragged into the presence of the king. They are both blindfolded,* the head being covered with a close cap, which * They covered Hainan’s face (Esth. vii. 8). Philotas, similarly hurled from the height of prosperity to the depth of degradation, was brought into Alexander's presence, with his hands bound, and his head covered with an old veil. — Quint. Curt. vi. 9. 352 ASSYRIA. descends over the eyes. The piteous helplessness of a blinded person, with the fore-part of the body slightly bent forward, and the face . upturned, is well depicted; though this position may be partly owing to the chin being dragged forward by the line and hook.* Another captive is kneeling in front of these two, between them and the king; but the sculpture is too much defaced to enable us to say anything about him. This defect is, however, fortunately supplied by the repetition of the same scene, in another hall of the same palace, in which, though the figures are in some respects more defaced than in the former, yet some particulars are preserved in which the other is lacking. By this we are able to add some circumstances of additional barbarity to this painful scene. The kneeling captive, like his two fellows that stand behind him, has the ring in his jaw, and the line from him as well as that from the others, is held in the king’s left hand. In his right hand, the monarch holds his uplifted spear, and with the utmost calmness deprives his prisoner of sight, the point of the spear being in the act of entering the eye of the wretched victim. Several allusions occur in the sacred Scriptures to the practice of inserting a hook into the jaws or nose of a captive ; such as the following, which are the more to the point that the majority of them refer either directly to the haughty Sennacherib, or to the captivity of Israel and Judah by Assyria and Babylon. Botta, pi. 83. WAR. 353 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou earnest. 2 Kings, xix. 28. The nations also heard of him ; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains [lit. hooks] unto the land of Egypt. Ezek. xix. 4. And they put him in ward in chains [lit. hooks] and brought him to the king of Babylon ; they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel. Ezek. xix. 9. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws. Ezek. xxix. 3, 4 . * The engraving gives the scene as restored , by a study of both of the bas-reliefs referred to in the text. 354 ASSYRIA. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. Amos iv. 2. I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws. Ezek. xxxviii. 4. Col. Rawlinson has seen an example of the nose - hook spoken of in the first of these passages, en- graved on a triumphal tablet near Holwan at the foot of Mount Zagros; remarkable as the earliest Babylonian record known. “ I discovered this tablet,” he observes, /xara of the Greeks, which Bockh* has shown to have been thick ropes which ran in a horizontal direction around the ship from prow to stern, intended to keep the whole fabric together. They ran round in several circles, and at certain distances apart, and were put on when the vessel sailed, or when bad weather was feared. Why they are seen only on the smaller galleys in the bas-relief is probably because these were slightly built, and not so well able as the larger to meet the shocks of storms, being put in requi- sition now only by the urgent necessity of the case. Mr. Layard adduces no small numismatic evi- dence to show that the form of these ships was Phoenician ; and in particular observes that the galleys, both on the coins referred to and in the Kouyunjik sculptures, “ are further identified with the vessels of the Syrian coasts by the coins of Sidon of a later period, which bear on one side a galley similarly constructed, and on che other the head of an Assyrian goddess.”-^ It has always been customary in the East for the revenues of princes to be largely derived from the presents brought to them from their inferiors and de- pendents. The system prevailed throughout all classes * Urkund. ]03. + Nineveh and its Rem. ii. 387. S 886 ASSYRIA. of society, each presenting his offering to his imme- diate superior, who was in like manner tributary to his lord or governor, he to his suzerain, until the “ great king” himself, the supreme ruler of many subject provinces, terminated the series. A conqueror often left a subjugated people in possession of their own country, when they had not exasperated him by too pertinacious a resistance, contenting himself with the homage of the conquered king expressed by a periodical present. Thus David having conquered the Syrians, put garrisons in their forts ; “ and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought gifts .” ( 2 Sam. viii. 6.) At other times the ruler of a petty state sought to deprecate the displeasure or to en- sure the protection of a mightier neighbour by a voluntary offering, an example of which we again find in the history of David. Then Toi sent Joram his son unto king David, to salute him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer, and smitten him : for Hadadezer had wars with Toi. And Joram brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass. 2 Sam. viii. 10. At other times the proffered gift is merely a token of amity, and is not intended to express any ac- knowledgment of fealty or superiority, though the pride of the receiver will endeavour if possible so to represent it. The English ambassadors to Persia and China have had great difficulty in extorting the acknowledgment that the presents of which they were the bearers were not tribute, but merely ex- pressions of friendly feeling from an independent power. Indeed in China it never has been conceded, WAR. 387 but foreign ambassadors are stoutly maintained to be “ bearers of tribute.” The system of which we speak was seen in its glory in the courts of the mighty potentates of old, whose empire extended over many subordinate king- doms ; as that of Israel in the golden days of Solo- mon ; that of Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar ; and in that of Persia under Ahasuerus, who “ reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces ” (Esth. i. 1). The sway of the first was not indeed so extensive as that of the others, but his fame was widely spread, and distant Sheba presented her gifts at his feet. The queen of that country Came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that hare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones. And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones : there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solo- mon. 1 Kings x. 2, 10. This was a present of amity, but in the follow- ing passage we have mention of a real tribute from the subject kings (ver. 26) over whom the Jewish king reigned, his dominion extending over all Western Asia from the Euphrates to Egypt. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, that God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year. 2 Chron. ix. 23, 24. It might easily be supposed that the powerful monarchs of Assyria would also have their tribute 388 ASSYRIA. from the various districts of their extended empire. And so we find it. Hoshea, the king of Israel, be- came the servant of Shalmaneser, and gave him pre- sents year by year (2 Kings xvii. 3, 4) ; and the ces- sation of this homage was tantamount to a rebellion. Of the same character, too, was the “ present” ( 2 Kings xviii. 31) which the insolent Rabshakeh de- manded for his master from the people of Judah, as the price of the “ agreement” which they were to make with him. On the black obelisk of Temen-bar II., who built the Central Palace of Nimroud, that ancient mon- arch records the history of his eventful reign, a portion of which, as restored by Col. Rawlinson, we have already given in the preceding pages.* He repeatedly speaks of the tribute which he gathered in his various expeditions. In the ninth year of TRIBUTE-BEARERS (Obelisk). his reign he received the tribute of the kings of the Chaldees, gold, silver, gems and pearls. In the eleventh year he received that of the king of * See p. 205, ante. WAR. 389 Shetina, gold, silver, horses, sheep, oxen, &c. In the fifteenth year, the king of Dayini paid his homage, and brought in his tribute of horses. In the twenty-first year Tyre, Sidon, and Gubal (Byblos) paid their tribute. In the twenty-sixth the country of Etlak paid its gold and silver, corn, sheep and oxen; &c. On the four sides of the Obelisk are represented in bas-relief, exquisitely cut and wonderfully pre- served, various scenes, almost all of them consisting of the presentation to the king of various articles of tribute. Col. Rawlinson reads the short epi- graphs or legends over each scene to express the offerings of five different countries,' — 1. Ladsan, near Armenia; 2. an unnamed country; 3. Egypt; 4. Shekhi, probably in Babylonia or Elymais ; and 5. Shetina, a tribe of Syria.* It is clear, however, that all of the attendants who present the various articles are dressed in the same manner. These presents, as far as they can be identified, consist of skins of wine, or perhaps of dry provisions ; f fruits in large trays, borne upon the head ; J bundles of * See the Appendix at the end of this volume, for evidence that a portion of this tribute was that of Jehu the King of Samaria. t For so we find skin- vessels appropriated in the Homeric age: — ■ Pour also meal Well- mill’d (full twenty measures) into skins Close-seam’d. Odys. ii. 452 (see also line 372). X The presentation of tribute to the Shah of Persia at the festival of Nurooz, one of the most ancient institutions of the empire, well illustrates these sculptures. The following are the words of Mr. Morier : — “ The first ceremony was the introduction of the presents from the different pro - vinces. That from prince Hossein Ali Meerza, governor of Shiraz, came first. The master of the ceremonies walked up, having with him the con- 390 ASSYRIA. valuable woods ; bags, perhaps of money or gems ; many caldrons ; cubical packages or masses of un- known character; ornamented and plain vases; pots ; sacrificial baskets, shaped like those of the Assyrian priests ; shawls; horses caparisoned; camels of the two-humped species ; an elephant ; a wild bull ; a rhinoceros ; a large antelope ; several species of apes and monkeys, and other productions more indeterminate. A slab found at Nimroud displays figures dressed in the high cap with a falling point, that marks the tri- bute bearers of the Obelisk, and evidently belonging to the same people, who likewise present monkeys, and sacrificial baskets, and in addition, bracelets and earrings in a sort of shallow tray. The nature of the animals does not with certainty indicate the origin of these offerings ; the two-humped camel is absolutely confined to Central Asia; while the ductor of the present, and an attendant, who, when the name and titles of the donor had been proclaimed, read aloud from a paper a list of the articles. The present from prince Hossein Ali consisted of a very long train of large trays, placed on men's heads , on which were shawls, stuffs, pearls, &c. ; then many trays, filled with sugar and sweetmeats ; after that, many mules laden with fruits. The next present was from Mohammed Ali Khan, prince of Hamadan, the eldest born of the king’s sons. .... It consisted of pistols and spears, a string of one hundred camels, and as many mules. After this, came the present from the prince of Y ezd, another of the king’s sons, which consisted of shawls and the silken stuffs, the manufacture of his own town. Then followed that of the prince of Me- shed. The last and most valuable was that from the Hajee Mohammed Hossein Khan, Ameen-ed-doulah. It consisted of fifty mules, each covered with a fine cashmere shawl, and each carrying a load of a thousand tomans. The other offerings had been lodged in the Sandeck Khoneh. This was conveyed in a different direction to the treasury. Each present, like the first, contained a portion of sugar and sweetmeats.” WAR. 391 elephant, the rhinoceros, and the apes seem to be Indian rather than African species of these animals. Their peculiarities, however, are too rudely deli- neated to admit of certainty on this point. On the other hand the antelope appears clearly to be the Bekr-el-Wash or wild ox of the Arabs {Antilope bubalus, Pall.), and not the A . Bennettii} (Sykes,) with which it is identified by Mr. Layard. The former is an animal of Abyssinia and Bar- bary; as large as a cow, to which it bears con- siderable resemblance ; its horns are ringed, and curved in the form of the sculptured figure. This species is frequently represented in the Egyptian monuments. On the slabs which embellished the palace of Khorsabad, copious space was devoted to the re- presentation of tribute-offering. Long lines of per- sons again and again appear, bringing, doubtless, the various productions of their country, or such articles, obtained by commerce or otherwise, as were esteemed most worthy of the imperial acceptance. All these trains, however, are found on close ex- amination, to belong to two races of people, easily identified and distinguished by countenance and by costume. One of these races is identifiable with the seamen who navigate the timber-ships in the expedition of the Khorsabad king against the island-fortress. These we have already had reason to consider a Phoenician people, probably Sidonians or Arvadites. They are at once distinguished by a close-fitting skull-cap, formed of many folds, the lines of which 392 ASSYRIA. diverge from a point on each side, near the ear. The mariners wear a plain tunic or gown reaching either to the knees or to the ankles, girded with a plain, wide girdle. But the commanders of the ships, and the tribute-bearers, whom we may sup- pose to be persons of superior station, are clothed in a long robe fringed at the bottom, over which is thrown an elegantly fringed mantle of singular form, being divided all up each side, while the back and front parts, usually rounded, hang down to the legs. Sometimes this is replaced by a mantle open only up the front, the two parts of which are con- nected by an ornamental chain. The beard is worn PHOENICIAN TRIBUTE. short and rounded. A few individuals in the tri- bute ranks wear instead of the folded cap, one end- ing in a low point either erect or falling over ; these seem superiors to the rest, and invariably present a WAR. 393 small model of a fort carried in one hand, probably carved in ivory. This very curious object bears a prominent place in the offerings of both races ; it may possibly have had a symbolic meaning, and have expressed the yielding up of the supremacy of a certain individual city or fortress, just as in later times the keys of a conquered town were presented to the victor. If so, probably each model was inscribed with the name of the city which it represented. Of the other gifts presented by this race the chief are bowls, such as could be carried one in each hand ; skin-bottles, probably containing wine ; * horses richly caparisoned; camels of the one-humped or Arabian species ; caskets containing rings, ear- rings, and rosettes, such as are represented on the diadems and bracelets of the Assyrian kings, and doubtless made of gems and precious metals. If these people do indeed represent the Phoenician nation, they could scarcely have been better charac- terised than by such wares as these. The skill and taste of Sidonian artists are continually celebrated by Homer both in the Iliad (vi. 328; xxiii. 888) and in the Odyssey (iv. 741 ; xv. 504 ; 507 ; 553, &c.) ; and Phoenicia seems to have held in the ancient world the same supremacy in works of elegance, of ornament, and of bijouterie , that France claims in the modern. * The wines of Lebanon and other districts of Syria have always en- joyed a very high reputation. The kings of Persia are said to have drunk no other than the wine of Helbon. (Athen. i.; Strabo, xv. See Hos. xiv. 7, and Ezek. xxvii. 18.) 394 ASSYRIA. But let us turn to the other race of men, who, as tribute-hearers, occupy a place no less prominent upon the Khorsabad bas-reliefs than these whom we conclude to represent the provinces of Western Asia. They wore the hair, in general, disposed over the whole head in small closely twisted ringlets, either arranged in horizontally running tiers, or else falling on every side from the crown downwards ; a singular coiffure. The whole was bound by a narrow fillet, over which the frontal ringlets some- times were allowed to fall. The beard was generally round and short, but in some cases (as with persons of superior rank) it was worn long and square, as with the Assyrians. The dress was a gown or tunic reaching to the mid-leg, or to the knees, which was girded at the waist by a cincture of many wavy lines, probably a sort of ribbon woven in a peculiar manner. From this hung down in front a short cord passing round the middle of a little button shaped like a barrel, or suspending an implement resembling a key. Possibly the girdle consisted of a long slender cord, passed many times round the body, with this appendage for a tag at the end. The skin, sometimes of a sheep or goat, sometimes of a leopard,* with the fur on, was thrown over all, on the left side fastened by a cord over the right shoulder, which was left bare. Boots laced up in front, and reaching either above the knees, or to the * Mr. Layard is in doubt whether these skins are those of leopards or of spotted gazelles (Nin. and its Rem. ii. 398, note). The paw, however, which the sculptor has drawn attached to the skin in one of the figures, decides this question. The leopard inhabits Armenia. WAR. 395 middle of the calf, defended the legs, and in the latter case the upper portion of the limb was encased in a material before alluded to ( See ante , p. 290) and indicated by crossing lines. The tribute brought by these men consisted only of the small models of fortresses, which we suppose to have been symbols of their cities, and horses. The latter are fine, high-bred animals, caparisoned like the Assyrian riding horses, full of fire and mettle in their figure and action. ARMENIAN TRIBUTE. The nationality of this people may perhaps be determined with no less certainty than that of the former. Many, though not all, of the sieges de- picted in the Khorsabad war-scenes, are those of fortresses garrisoned by a race agreeing in costume and appearance with these, so closely as to leave no doubt of their identity. One of these is the city Mekhatseri, which Col. Rawlinson sees reason to 396 ASSYRIA. conclude was situated in Armenia, and not impro- bably was the same as is now known by the name of Van. Another of these is the city of Kharkhar, capital of a province of the same name, which the same excellent authority declares was certainly a part of Armenia. The noble animals represented as brought by this people were peculiarly appropriate as an Armenian tribute. The prophet Ezekiel in his enumeration of the productions of many lands that enriched the princely Tyre, thus speaks of Armenia. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses, and horsemen, and mules. Ezek. xxvii. 14. On which passage Dr. Kitto thus comments. “ Togarmah we believe, with Michaelis, to have been Armenia. This country was in very ancient times celebrated for its horses. It was in this country and Media that the Persian kings bred horses for themselves and their armies, and in later times the Armenians paid their tribute in horses . The word rendered “ horsemen” (D'ttHS, parashim) has certainly sometimes that meaning, and may here imply that along with the horses were sold slaves skilled in the care and treatment of those animals. But the word also means horses for riding , as dis- tinguished from others ; and if thus understood here, the others were probably chariot-horses. Mi- chaelis thinks that the two words (D'DID, susim , and D'tZHID, parashim) distinguish the common and more noble breeds; and if so, this is a distinction an- ciently applicable, so far as we know, to no other WAR. 397 part of the east than Armenia ; and we may re- cognise in the latter the famous Nysean horses which . . . were admired not less for the colour and brightness of their hair than for the elegance of their forms, on which account they alone were held worthy to draw the chariots of the Persian kings.”* The persons whom we have before mentioned as brought in manacles before the king, one of whom was flayed, and others blinded by his own hand, — appear to have been chiefs of this people. They were clothed in mantles of more courtly form and ornament than either the warriors or the tribute bearers. We are disposed to believe that in the sculptures the Armenians are put representatively for the whole of the tributary nations on the north and east of Assyria proper, and the Phoenicians for those lying to the west and south-west. * Piet. Bible, in loc. 398 ASSYRIA. HUNTING. And Cush begat Nimrod ; he began to be a mighty one in the earth : He was a mighty hunter before the Lord : wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. Gen. x. 8, 9. In the early ages of the world, when men were few, hut yet were energetically extending their sway over the earth, they would find their supre- macy continually challenged by the savage animals of the forest and jungle, of various formidable races. The primeval seats of the human family after the flood, and the countries immediately surrounding, into which they would first push their dominion, were then and are still the prolific regions of some of the mightiest and most ferocious of the brute creation, ever ready to contest with tusk and horn, talon and fang, the lordship of man. The kingly lion, the tiger, the leopard, and the panther lurked in the covert, thirsty for blood ; the wooded moun- tain sheltered the secondary felince , with the wolf, and the hear ; the plains re-echoed the shriek of the hyena and the jackal : the elephant and the rhinoceros shook the gloomy forest : the fierce hoar, prompt for war, ravaged the newly-planted gardens and vineyards; fierce and powerful baboons, cunning as cruel, dwelt in the caves and recesses of the HUNTING, 399 woods ; and animals of the herbivorous class, yet hardly less hold and savage than the lords of the carnivorous tribes, the oryx, the bubalus, the nyl- ghau, the wild bull, the buffalo, the urus, the bo- nassus, the arnee, and the gaur, — were ready to use their gigantic strength in instant assault upon any foe, bestial or human, that might dare to invade their domain. To meet these sylvan possessors of the earth, and either to destroy them, or to expel them from the vicinity of cultivation and settlement, was thus absolutely necessary,* and the successful hunter would be legitimately regarded as a benefactor of his race. Many qualities of mind and body would be brought into practice, and would be improved by the exercise, in this indispensable employment, which would impart to their possessor a halo of glory in the eyes of his fellows, and would lead the way for the assumption on the one hand, and for the concession on the other, of royal authority and power. Personal prowess and daring hardihood would prompt the youth to seek the lion or the buffalo ; a knowledge of his enemy’s haunts, and of his habits would be needful to guide him in the conflict; the powerful muscular frame, to sustain * On the introduction of Israel into Canaan, Jehovah declared (Exod. xxiii. 29 ; Deut. vii. 22) that he would not exterminate the original in- habitants at once, lest “ the beasts of the field” should so multiply as to become troublesome. In the fragmentary notes upon India by Mega- sthenes, which have been preserved, he says that the third caste consists of shepherds and hunters, and that the latter “ for clearing the land of wild beasts and birds that destroy the grain, are entitled to a portion of corn from the king.” — Cory, Anc. Frag. 217. (Ed. 1832). 400 ASSYRIA. the shock of the assault ; skill in the use of weapons, the practised eye, the ready hand, to direct the blow with precision and effect ; agility to evade the forceful impetus of his brute foe ; a mind fertile in resources and stratagems ; promptitude to follow up an unexpected advantage ; fortitude in danger ; pa- tience in suffering ; — such are some of the qualifica- tions which would be indispensable for one who in those early days, and in that region of the earth, was ambitious to claim the reputation of a “ mighty hunter.” Hunting was thus only of less importance as an occupation, than war itself. It was indeed con- sidered by the ancients as a sort of war, and formed a fit preparatory education for that sterner conflict, in which the resources of man were engaged against those of his fellow man. Thus Xenophon observes of the Persians of his time: — “They are careful to keep up these public huntings ; and the king, as in war, so in this, is their leader ; hunts himself and takes care that others do so ; because it seems to be the truest method of practising all such things as relate to war. It accustoms them to rise early in the morning, and to bear heat and cold ; it exercises them in long marches, and in running; it necessi- tates them to use their bow against the beast they hunt, and to throw their javelin if he fall in their way: their courage must of necessity be often sharp- ened in the hunt, when any of the strong and vigorous beasts oppose themselves : they must come to blows with the beast if he comes up with them, and must be upon their guard as he comes upon HUNTING. 401 them. So that it is no easy matter to find what one thing there is that is practised in war, and is not so in hunting.”* The same author, himself an ardent lover of the sport, affirms that almost all the ancient heroes, Nestor, Theseus, Castor, Pollux, Ulysses, Diomede, Achilles, &c., were “ disciples of hunting,” having been carefully instructed in this art, as one that would he of the greatest service to them in military affairs (Cyneg.) ; and Pliny observes that those who were designed for great commanders, first learned to contest with the swiftest wild beasts in speed, with the most fierce in strength, and with the most sagacious in subtlety. (Panegyr). Herodotus (i. 37) associates together te the two most noble and becoming exercises of war and hunt- ing.” The divine grant of flesh for human food, con- ferred for the first time upon man, in God’s cove- nant with him after the deluge, would doubtless give a motive and a zest to the sport of hunting. Per- haps the rebellious race of Cain had eaten flesh before the flood, without waiting for the divine permission ; but now that all restrictions were taken off, men, we may be sure, would not be slow to avail them- selves of the newly bestowed privilege. Without the resources of hunting, however, the permission would have been of little avail to them ; for though flocks and herds were under man’s dominion from the very earliest ages, and, as we firmly believe, were originally given to him in a state of domestication, yet these would be much too valuable in the infancy * Ashley’s Cyropsedia, i. 64. See also ii. 244. 402 ASSYRIA. of the world, for the gratification of habitual appetite in this way. Accordingly when Isaac wished for “ savoury meat,” though the event proved that a kid from his own flocks could be so dressed as not to be distinguishable from game, and though “he had great possession of flocks, and possession of herds,” (Gen. xxvi. 14) yet he did not send to these for his meat, but commissioned his elder son to go forth to the field “ to hunt for venison.” And this was not an extraordinary case, for we learn that Isaac habitu- ally “ ate of his venison ; ” (xxv. 28) and so valuable were the talents of the “cunning hunter,” in thus supplying the family with animal food, which other- wise they would probably seldom have tasted, that Isaac’s affections were peculiarly drawn out to him on this account. The same feelings prevail in the East to this day. Very little animal food is eaten, and least of all by the pastoral wanderers, who have ample flocks and herds. “ The Oriental shepherds,” observes Dr. Kitto, “ seldom, except to entertain a stranger, (See Gen. xviii. 7) think of diminishing their flocks to supply themselves with meat. They are as glad of any game that falls in their way, as if they had not a sheep or goat in their possession ; and it was quite natural that such a ‘ cunning hunter’ as Esau should rather be directed to go out into the fields and shoot game, than to go and fetch kids from the flock.”* If the various tribes of animals now existing in a state of domestic servitude, were not originally * Piet. Bible, i. 175. HUNTING. 403 created in that state, as we believe they were, and given to man as an inestimable boon to lighten his penal toil, or to minister to his wants ; — if in the early ages the horse, the ass, the bull, the goat, the sheep, the dog, were denizens of the woods and plains in native freedom, a condition of being which, as re- gards these races, has confessedly not been recog- nised within the reach of history or tradition, then the stratagems and the labours of the hunter would have another object not less important than those which we have noticed. The subjugation of the horse and of the bull from the wild liberty of nature, and the training of these fine animals to perform the various services that man required, laying their gigantic strength at his feet, — would surely be a nobler conquest, and would reflect upon the primi- tive heroes who achieved it a greater honour, than the defeat of armies and the capture of cities. But this, we think, was no human achievement. Jehovah’s questions to Job appear to imply that the docility of domestic animals is a quality im- planted in them by Himself ; and that it is not given to man’s endeavours to subjugate such as are natu- rally wild. Will the unicorn [the Reem, probably some ferocious animal of the bovine race,] be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib ? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow ? or will he harrow the val- leys after thee ? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great ? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him ? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn ? Job. xxxix. 9 — 12. But why not, if it was merely contingent upon human skill to subdue and to train the wild animals? 404 ASSYRIA* The early Assyrian kings, like the illustrious founder of their monarchy, were {t mighty hunters,” men who loved the chase, and who hesitated not to peril life and limb in single combat with the most savage and powerful denizens of the forest. In those days, the noble sport was pursued in a very different mode from that in which it was followed afterwards in the Persian {t paradises,” where the affrighted beasts were congregated into a narrow space, and shot by the monarch, or rather butchered, from some elevated post where no danger could ap- proach his person.* The early heroes, Ninus and Semiramis, had immortalized themselves by their personal exploits with the lion and the panther, f * Nearly the same ignoble method is practised at this day in Persia and India. Mr. Morier accompanied the Prince of Persia to a hunt in the mountains of Tabriz. “We took our stations with guns loaded with ball, upon the brink of a deep valley, through which the game was to be driven. The prince had overnight sent several battalions of his troops, with their drums, to surround and beat the country, and at the time we arrived at the spot, the game was to have appeared in the vale, on the confines of which we were stationed, but unfortunately the scheme failed. The advance of the troops had been ill-timed, and the wild goats and an- telopes, which were to have been our prey, had escaped before we appeared. . . . The slaughter of game is sometimes immense on these parties ; for when the beasts are driven into the valleys, they find an enemy behind each rock, and the fire that is kept up incessantly alarms them so much that they know not where to go for safety.” Second Journey. t According to Diodorus (ii. § 1) the inner wall of Babylon had “por- trayed in the bricks, before they were burnt, all sorts of living creatures, as if it were to the life, laid with great art in curious colours. Especially was represented a general hunting of all sorts of wild beasts, each four cubits high and upwards. Amongst these was to be seen Semiramis on horseback, striking a leopard through with a dart, and next to her, her husband Ninus, in close fight with a lion, piercing him with his lance.” HUNTING. 405 LION HUNT. 406 ASSYRIA. which popular tradition delighted to repeat; and they and their successors had sought to perpetuate the memory of these glorious deeds, by sculptur- ing them on the marble walls of their palace courts, as not less worthy of remembrance than the scenes of martial conquest with which they were inter- mingled, or the congregation of tribute-bearers which symbolized a dominion extending from sea to sea. Another kind of commemoration of the exploits of the “ mighty hunter” was the exaltation of him to the skies ; for the most striking and splendid constellation in the nocturnal heavens, Orion, with his starry belt and pendent sword, preceded by the hare, and followed by the dog (according to Chaldean astronomy), was considered to represent Nimrod. The favourite game of the Assyrian monarch comprised the lion and the wild bull : both of them foes “worthy of his steel.” The magnificent figures of the lion, drawn with the utmost anatomical pre- cision, with the varied expressions of calm courage, of furious rage, or of suffering and pain, are given in the sculptures with uncommon vivacity and spirit,'* and prove that the artists were personally familiar with the king of beasts. In the accompanying engraving, which we copy from the magnificent work of Messrs. Elandin and * “ The lion and the tiger are furnished with a small horny apex to the tail, — a fact noticed by the ancients, but only verified of late years, because this object lies concealed in the hair of the tip, and is very liable to drop off.” (Col. H. Smith in Cyclop, of Bibl. Lit., ii. 252.) The As- syrian sculptors have not overlooked this curious appendage, but they have given it a somewhat exaggerated development. It seems to be confined to the Asiatic variety (or species) of the lion. HUNTING. 407 Coste,* we see royal ambition treading in tbe same path as of old, and discern how little the sculptor’s art has to boast of progress during three thousand years. It is from a bas-relief of colossal size cut on a rock at Teheran by Futteh Ali Shah, the late king of Persia, representing him slaying a lion with his own hand. PERSIAN KING KILLING A LION. The Assyrian monarch usually appears to have hunted in his chariot, which did not differ either in its structure and appendages, or in the trap- pings of the horses, from that employed in war. He was equipped, too, as if for battle. The bow and feathered shafts seem principally to have been relied on; but he carried his sword girded at his side, and an axe and a spare bow were as usual in the large quivers on his chariot ; the spear also stood in its socket behind.f Armed men on * Voyage en Perse, ii. pi. 80. -f- Before the age of Homer, the how and arrow, the spear, the sword, and the mace, constituted the entire armoury of offensive weapons used by 408 ASSYRIA. foot accompanied their lord,* who with round buck- lers and short swords attacked the lion, to draw off the attention of the infuriated beast, when wounded. The lowness of the chariot, which was quite open behind, afforded the king no pro- tection against the animal when he came to close quarters, while its narrow limits would in some measure deprive him of advantages which the open ground might afford. The sculptures show that the savage monster, when pierced with the shafts but not disabled, often rushed to the chariot, and reared up against its open back with gnashing teeth and extended talons, f in which case the king had only his own skill, strength, and prowess to look to for defence. But these encounters were familiar dan- gers ; the mighty hunter, thrusting his bossed buckler in the face of his brute assailant, struck the spear- point down his gaping throat, or took advantage of his rampant attitude to stab him to the heart with the two-edged sword. Sometimes the King was attended in his hunt- ing expeditions by his nobles in their chariots, J who took part in the chase, apparently on equal terms with himself, pursuing the lion at full speed, and shooting him as he fled. And occasionally indi- viduals of rank and station displayed their skill and courage by single combats with the forest-monarch the warriors and hunters of semi-barbarous Greece. These, too, are the weapons with which the Assyrians hunted the lion and the bull. * Layard.pl. 10. t The lion, when he glares Determin’d battle. — JEschylus. X Layard, pi. 31. HUNTING. 409 in his own domain. Scenes of this character, very interesting in their details, were favourite subjects in the embroidered decoration of royal robes. * In one of these a nobleman wearing a diademed cap, and garments richly adorned, has sought the forest on horseback, with one attendant, also mounted. On arriving at the ground, he has alighted, leaving both the horses in the charge of his com- panion. Two lions are in the picture, one of which the hunter has pursued and seized by the mane with his left hand ; the savage beast ramps up with out- stretched paws, but receives the point of the sword in his heart. The other lion walks off in an attitude which expresses the conflict of fear with anger. The attendant, though armed with helmet, bossed shield and spear, takes no part in the combat. In another scene the noble hunter kneels on one knee to shoot an arrow at the lion, who comes on to meet him with open mouth, lashing his stiffened tail from side io side. Two other men hasten up * Layard, pis. 8, 49, 50. T 410 ASSYRIA. after the lion, the one armed with spear and shield, the other with the spear and mace, and both wearing helmets. The scenery represents a wooded country. Somerville says: — When Nimrod bold, That mighty hunter, first made war on beasts. And stained the woodland green with purple dye, New and unpolish’d was the huntsman’s art. With clubs and stones, rude implements of war. He arm’d his savage bands, a multitude Untrain’d : of twining osiers form’d, they pitch Their artless toils, then range the desert hills, And scour the plains below. The Chase , Book I. But the arms and appliances of the early Assyrians were very far from this rude condition. Oppian, in his third mode of hunting the lion, practised, as he says, in Ethiopia, has furnished an excellent commentary on these sculptures. He calls it an arduous and wonderful exploit; and describes it as performed by four bold Ethiopians, relying upon their strength and valour. They are furnished with circular shields, strongly made of osiers interwoven, and covered with bull’s hide, which, when dry, defies the talons and teeth of the most savage beasts. Their whole bodies they invest in wool, wrapping it round their upper parts in thick bundles, and cover their heads with helmets, leaving only the lips, the nose, and the eyes exposed. (See the description of the Assyrian helmets on page 285 ante). Thus accoutred, they approach the savage with fearless impatience, cracking the air with thick whips. “ He, looking forth wrathfully from his cavern, roars with horrible open mouth against his HUNTING. 411 assailants, his blue eyes* flashing fire, fervid in rage, like the heavenly lightning. As when the flood of Granges bursts from the rocks upon the shore, swollen with the supply of twenty other rivers, and pours itself with furious whirlpools into the sea,* — so the woods resound, and the surrounding mountains with the lion’s dreadful roaring ; the very heavens re-echo. Like a tempest he comes on, greedy to sate himself with the blood of his opponents; hut they await unmoved his lightning-like assault. Un- governable he rushes on with dreadful jaws and talons, and lacerates whomsoever he seizes. But one of the youths assailing him vigorously from behind, he turns with a mighty growl upon his new foe, when another in turn wounds him in the side. Others from other points irritate him, relying on the hides, the shields, and the thongs, which neither his powerful teeth can cut, nor the points of his steel-like claws penetrate. He meanwhile, furiously raging, spends his labour in vain; now relinquishing one enemy, now suddenly seizing another, and bear- ing him aloft from the ground, and now falling with indomitable force upon another. But, like as when a brave warrior finds himself surrounded by*a ring of foes in the fervid battle,— breathing forth courage, he rushes hither and thither, shaking his blood-dyed spear, but at length the martial crowd overpowers him, as all close upon him at once ; down he falls transfixed wTith many javelins; — so the fierce lion, * XocgovoTnv eftpuiriv. By this epithet, which seems to have puzzled the commentators, the poet doubtless intended to indicate the gleam of blue light that is seen within the eyes of animals of the cat kind, reflected from the tapetum lucidum of the choroid membrane. 412 ASSYRIA. worn out with his fruitless labours, yields the palm of battle to his foes, distils from his mouth the bloody foam, and lowers his suffusing eyes to the ground. As when a fighter, who has earned many crowns in the strife, at length subdued by wounds from the hand of a more fortunate foe, at first stands streaming with copious blood, then staggers as if drunken, and nods his head, but at last, his tottering knees giving way, he falls upon the earth ; so the forest-king stretches his powerless limbs upon the sand. But his enemies then press upon him the more, and bind him in strong bands, an unresisting prey. Much-daring men ! how great an exploit have they conceived, how great an exploit have they performed, who have prevailed to carry off that truculent monster, as if it had been a ram from the fold ! ”• To attack and overcome a lion in single combat was always esteemed by the ancients a great exploit. The earliest display of Samson’s superhuman strength was the killing and rending of “ a young lion,” (that is, a lion in the pride of his youthful prime) with no weapon in his hand (Judg. xiv. 6). David also re- cords his having attacked a lion that came to prey on his dock ; he “ caught him by the beard, and smote him and slew him” (1 Sam. xvii. 35) and this feat seems to have been performed with no weapons more effective than the rude staves and stones of the field, or at best his shepherd’s crook. The ff slaying of a lion in a pit in a snowy day,” by Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada (2 Sam. xxiii.20; * Cyneget, iv. 147 — 211. HUNTING. 413 1 Chr. xi. 22) was an exploit of sufficient magnitude to be enumerated among the deeds that gave to that heroic warrior an honourable place among the worthy triads of King David’s mighty men. Among the Greeks several instances were pre- served by tradition of this mighty deed in the heroic age ; of which it may be sufficient to allude to the slaughter of the Nemaean lion by Hercules. In historic times Alexander the Great, emulous of Herculean fame, himself engaged the king of beasts in single combat, and came off victorious. The gladiators called bestiarii, were expressly trained for these conflicts in the Roman amphitheatres, and exhibited a coolness, an agility, and a skill in the use of weapons, that not infrequently made them triumphant over the brute rage of lions fresh from fiery Numidia.* No proof, that we are aware of, is afforded by the sculptures that the Assyrians used tame lions in war or in the chase, in both of which services they were frequently employed by the Egyptians but that these and other wild beasts were caught alive and kept for show, as a part of royal pomp, there * Montfaucon has given a plate (tom. III. part ii. pi. 182), from the Nasonian tomb, of a curious lion hunt. Eight men armed with large round bucklers contend with two lions, in an inclosed park. The force of the lion’s assault has overthrown one man, who however so covers his body with his shield as to defy the animal’s teeth and claws ; while two other men prepare to draw off his attention from their prostrate friend. The other lion rushes against five men who stand side by side, presenting a wall of their shields to him. Neither bow, arrows, sword, nor spear is in the hands of any of the hunters, unless a staff in the grasp of one may be the handle of a spear. t Wilkinson, Mann, of Egyptians, iii. 17. Diod, Sic. 148. 414 ASSYRIA. is every reason to believe. The “ den of lions ” at Babylon, into which the faithful prophet was cast (Dan. vi.) was doubtless of this character, and probably not an innovation of the Persian dynasty, but an old appendage of Babylonian royalty. The apocryphal author of “ Bel and the Dragon” informs us that the den contained seven lions, which were fed every day with two carcases (or slaves) and two sheep. In Morocco and Barbary, lions are at the present time kept in dens, for the same purpose, the execution of criminals.* Many of the early Christian martyrs were “ thrown to the lions.” Between the colossal bull-cherubs that, back to back, guarded the magnificent portal of the pro- pyleum in front of Shalmaneser’s palace, stood on each side a human figure of gigantic dimensions, holding a lion tightly down under his left arm, while the efforts of the animal were restrained by its fore paw being firmly grasped in the same hand. Doubtless these are symbolic figures; but the action of the animal under circumstances so peculiar, the attitude, the play of the muscles, and the contortions of the brutal countenance, as with impotent rage it struggles to escape, — are so vividly and correctly rendered, as to force* the conclusion that the sculptor had the living reality before him when he transferred the subject to the marble. The ancient mode of capturing lions alive is thus described by Oppian: — “ The hunters, having sought a place, where the maned lion, the terror of the herds and of the herdsmen, roars terribly in his cavern, * Hoest. ii. 77. HUNTING. 415 dig a round hole both wide and deep, and fix up- right in it a stone column lofty and inaccessible. From the top of this they suspend a lamb just taken from the parent, and encircle the pit with a strong wall of stones. The bleating of the lamb soon at- tracts the king of the forest, who, rushing to the place, paces round and round the wall, eyeing the prey. At length, urged by hunger, he leaps the fence, and instantly finds himself, to his astonish- 416 ASSYRIA, ment, at the bottom of the snare. The hunters, who had watched from a distance the success of their stratagem, approach, and let down to the desponding beast, a trap ingeniously made of thongs, within which they have placed a piece of roasted flesh. He presently enters, the orifice is drawn together, and he is thus dragged, an enraged captive, to the surface.”* With equal truth to nature the sculptures repre- sent combats of lions and other carnivora with bulls and similar animals. The side-stroke of the mighty paw, the diverging toes, the exserted talons, the seiz- ing of the prey by the throat, with the head turned on one side ; the mode in which the agile monster leaps on the back of his prey, crouching up and holding by the flesh of the shoulders with adpressed paws, — are well depicted, and indicate familiarity with the scene. The conquest of the wild bull by the prowess of the Assyrian king was an exploit deemed worthy, no less than that of the lion, of representation on the sculptured walls of his palace. And let us not think lightly of this herbivorous animal, as if it were a timid or a powerless foe. The figures on the bas-reliefs show that the species was the Urus of ancient Europe ( Bos urus , Sm.) not the bison or aurochs ; and a comparison of the representations of the Assyrian artists with a fine figure of the wild urus in Griffith’s Anim. King. (iv. 411) shows how carefully the former attended to minute characters of specific identity. Of this species were the wild * Cyneget. iv. 77. HUNTING. 417 bulls of the Hercynian forest, which Caesar describes (lib. vi.) as little inferior to elephants in size, of great stength and swiftness, sparing neither man nor beast, when they have caught sight of him. The race seems to have spread over the whole of Europe and Western Asia, reaching even to Britain; the huge forest that surrounded ancient London was in- fested with these boves sylvestres among other wild beasts, and the race is supposed still to exist in a semi-domesticated state, in the white oxen of Chil- WILD URUS. lingham and some other of our northern parks. The ferocity of the urus distinguished it from the bison, even among the Latin poets, and it was esteemed inferior to no animal in savage power. Hence the destruction of one was a great exploit, worthy of heroic fame. Philip of Macedon killed a wild bull in Mount Orbela, which had made great havoc and produced great terror among the inhabitants; its spoils he hung up in commemoration of his feat 418 ASSYRIA. in the vestibule of the temple of Hercules. The legendary exploit of Gruy, Earl of Warwick, in freeing the neighbourhood from a terrible dun cow, whether historically true or not, implied a tra- ditionary terror of the animal ; and the family of Turnbull in Scotland are said to owe their patro- nymic to a hero who turned a wild bull from Robert Bruce, when it had attacked him in hunting.* Pliny’s description of the Ethiopian wild bull is sufficiently formidable. “ But the most fell and cruell of all others in that country, be the wild bulls of the forest, greater than our common field- bulls : most swift, of colour brended ; their eyes gray or blewish, their hair growing contrarie, their mouth wide, and reaching to their eares; their homes likewise hard by, mooveable ; their hide as hard as a flint, checking the dent of any weapon whatsoever, and cannot be pierced ; all other wild-beastes they chase and hunt ; themselves cannot be taken but in pitfalls : in this their wildnesse and rage they dye, and never become tamed.”f The species thus alluded to was not the urus, which never extended to Africa, but was probably the Bos caffer , now one of the most formidable animals of South Africa, and more dreaded than * In the curious old plates of Johannes Stradan’s “ Venationes Ferarum,” there is one representing the hunting of the wild bull, with the following legend : — “ Bubalus agrestis, rabidus, trux, et ferus est bos Indomitum ut capiant, equites peditesque frequenti Latratu cursuque canum morsuque fatigant, Donee humi vasto procumbat corpore fessus.” f Ph. Holland’s Pliny, viii. 21. HUNTING. 419 the lion himself. It affords another example of the ferocity that may attach to the bovine race. Thunberg, in South Africa, had an encounter with a male of this species, which had been well nigh fatal to him. It killed two of the horses of the party in a few minutes, and drove the traveller and his companions to take rapid refuge in the branches of tall trees, where they remained till the savage beast departed. So tremendous was the brute’s assault that the first horse fell on its back with its feet in the air, and all its entrails hanging out; in which state it lived about half an hour : the second horse was pierced quite through the breast by the bull’s horns, which even went through the saddle ; it was in a moment thrown to the ground, and died instantly with many of its bones broken. There are wild species of great size and equal ferocity found in the forests of India, such as Bos gour9 Bos arnee , Bos bubalus , &c., with which the lion and tiger have no chance in combat. Even an old male of the domesticated species is sufficiently formidable when enraged, and many of our readers will recall Byron’s fine allusion to the ferocity of the assaulted bull : — Hark ! heard ye not the forest-monarch’s roar ? Crashing the lance, he snuffs the spouting gore Of man and steed, o’erthrown beneath his horn. Childe Harold , i. 68. The mode in which the Assyrian kings hunted the urus was closely similar to that employed for the lion, and their arms and equipage were the same. The monarch pursued the quarry in his chariot at 420 ASSYRIA. full speed, pouring in his arrows, as he urged the race, and aiming particularly at the head, or the heart, just behind the shoulder. Sometimes the animal fell pierced with many wounds, and lay pros- trate with lolling tongue and glazing eyes, hut at others the eager hunter pushed on as the wounded beast relaxed its speed, and driving close by his side, seized one horn* in the moment of passing, and with the hand of a practised matador , inserted the point of his sword between the joints of the spine just behind the skull, dividing the medullary cord and producing instant death. f As in the lion-chase, a horseman fully armed and accoutred with bow and spear, helm and shield, led a spare horse caparisoned for the monarch’s use, when the nature of the country no longer permitted the * In the bull- fights introduced at Rome by Julius Caesar, Thessalian horsemen pursued the bulls round the circus, and when the latter were tired out, seized them by the horns , and killed them. + Layard, pi. 11. HUNTING. 421 progress of the vehicle, or when convenience prompted a change of motion.** It was sometimes the duty of the armed horsemen to push on and turn the bull to- wards the king,')' when likely to escapej by his supe- rior fleetness ; and not unfrequently both these with the bow and spear, and footmen with the shield and sword, bore their part in the death of the noble game. The prey was brought home to the palace, § though the mode of its transmission is not represented ; pro- bably it was dragged by horses, like the bulls slain in the Spanish arena. The victorious king was met by the officers of his household, presenting him with refreshments, and by musicians who celebrated his prowess, as we have already noticed (see ante, p.131). We have spoken of the combats between lions and bulls, which formed a favourite subject for the em- broidered borders of royal garments. In these the courage and power of the bull are well depicted in one scene, in which a lion has leaped upon his an- tagonist’s back, and strives by tooth and talon to * Layard, pi. 11, 32. + Ibid, pi. 48. J Blane, in his description of Asoph UT Doulah’s hunting, thus speaks of one of the wild bovine races in Western India. “The hunting the wild buffaloe is performed by shooting him from elephants ; but he runs so fast that it is very difficult to get up with him, and as there are no dogs that will attack him, the horsemen are sent after him to endeavour to stop or turn him ; but they dare not venture near, as he runs at them, and can easily toss a horse with his horns, if he comes within his reach. But when he can by any means be retarded, so as to let the elephants come up, he is soon dispatched by the matchlock. Some of the buffaloes are of prodigious size and strength, and have an uncommonly wild and furious look ; and they are so formidable in the jungles, that it is said even the largest royal tyger never ventures to attack them.” — Hunting in the Mogul Empire, p. 1 98. § Layard, pi. 12. 422 ASSYRIA maintain his hold; a second bull gallops up to the succour of his fellow with threatening front. In another, the tawny savage has sprung at the throat of the bull, while another of the herd, pawing the ground with his hoofs, lowering his head, and lashing his tail to and fro, runs up behind. In another, the bull bowed to one knee, by the impetus of his antagonist’s mighty bound, seems in the very act of throwing up his head with a shock that will cast his foe over his back into the air ; nearly in the identical attitude delineated by Captain Williamson, in his spirited representation of a combat between a buffalo and a tiger. The reproduction of these bestial con- flicts with so much truth, renders it probable that they were not less common among the ancient Assyrians, as exciting shows for popular delight, than they are among the modern Asiatics.* * Sir C. Fellowes found the bull contending with lions the most com- mon device on the bas-reliefs of Lvcia, and suggests that the reference may be to the family of Europa, contending with the wild animals of the country. (Disc, in Lycia, 182.) But the device is as characteristic of Assyria as of Asia Minor. HUNTING. 4 23 Captain Williamson’s description of tlie tiger’s mode of fighting when opposed to the buffalo is doubtless equally applicable to that of the lion, and is very illustrative of these ancient sculptures. When at length, after much manifestation of cowardice, the tiger “ does summon up courage to oppose his assailant, he displays wonderful vigour and activity. His claws are distended, and wherever they touch they fail not to draw streams of blood; actuating the buffalo to the most desperate efforts, but which are not of long duration. The immense strength TIGER AND BUFFALO FIGHT. of the tiger lies in his fore-arm, and would prove fatal to the buffalo if there were an opportunity given for a blow to take proper effect. The buffalo being on his guard, avoids too close an engagement, but ever keeping a front to his opponent, rushes towards him with his whole force, and recedes with surprising celerity as soon as the tiger shows his intention to strike. Sometimes the tiger will follow and make a desperate spring, which, however, the buffalo either avoids by rapidly shifting his ground, 424 ASSYRIA. or at the same moment, darting forward, meets the tiger with his horns.” Capt. W. has never seen a rencontre between a tiger and a wild buffalo, but from what he has witnessed of the sufficiency of a tame one he judges that the tiger would have not the least chance in the conflict.* The heroic and energetic monarchs of early As- syria, doubtless, might boast with Sir Tristrem, — “ — My most delight hath always been To hunt the salvage chace, amongst my peers, Of all that range th in the forest green, Of which none is to me unknown that ever yet was seen.” But the conquest of inferior game was not, in ge- ral, deemed of sufficient importance to be worthy of commemoration by the chisel of the sculptor. To this we are aware of only one exception, where the pursuit of a large kind of stag by a hunter on horse- back is represented on the ornamental embroidery of a robe. The species is probably the common red deer, though the artist has exaggerated its di- mensions, f No trace of the dog, either as an auxiliary to man, in the chase of the wild animals, or in any other capacity, appears on the Assyrian sculptures ; a cir- cumstance the more remarkable, because in Egyptian monuments of high antiquity its occurrence is fre- quent, and that of various breeds, — some of which, resembling our modern scent hounds, are used solely for hunting. J And the training of dogs for hunting * Oriental Field Sports, 93. + Bishop Heber mentions the mohr, a Species of deer, considerably larger than the stag, as seen by him in the north of India. X See Wilkinson, Mann. Anc. Egypt, iii. 12, 32. HUNTING. 425 is expressly mentioned as a recognised profession by the ancient Hindoo laws. * But Colonel Rawlinson found in the ruins of Babylon a fragment of sculpture representing in beautiful workmanship a man with a short club in his hand, and a huge dog standing by his side, with a collar round his neck, from which a rope is held in the man’s other hand. The relic, which is now in the British Museum, is doubtless of high anti- quity, and may be Assyrian. The dog is a magni- ficent animal, belonging to that variety now known as the Thibet mastiff, the remarkable peculiarity of fC the skin of the eyebrows forming a fold which runs down the sides of the face,” being conspicu- ously preserved in the bas-relief. * Institut. of Menu, iv. 216. 4 26 ASSYRIA. This fine breed exceeds the English mastiff in size and in ferocity, but is warmly attached to its owners. It is covered with a rough hair of a black colour on the body, becoming rufous on the face and limbs; the lips are pendulous, and the tail curls over the back. A pair were brought to this country a few years ago from the Himalaya mountains, but they soon died. The race is found to degenerate if removed from the elevated regions which are their native home; it dwindles even in Nepaul. Yet this breed is probably the original of the mastiffs of Western Europe. We do not learn that these noble dogs are now employed in any other service than that of watching the flocks and encampments of the Tibetian moun- taineers, an office which they fulfil with exemplary courage and faithfulness. But in ancient times they were prized for their great strength and courage, fitting them for that kind of hunting which con- sisted in the extirpation of savage beasts. There can scarcely be a doubt that the Indian dogs so celebrated by the Greeks were Tibetian mastiffs, the dogs of the Indi and Seri (the modern Affghans) specimens of which, of gigantic stature, were presented to Alexander the Great. The ancients say that these Indian dogs would attack even the greater carnivora , and some (as J. Pollux and Plutarch) go so far as to affirm that they declined to combat with any less than the lion. Pliny* speaks of dogs belonging to a king of Albania, (which according to Strabo were of the Indian breed), which killed a * Hist. Nat. viii. 40. HUNTING. 427 lion, and so worried an elephant that he fell ex- hausted. And iElian has recorded a horrible story* of an Indian dog, which suffered himself to he cut to pieces limb by limb, rather than let go his hold, a narrative which quite eclipses Goldsmith’s well known account of an English bull-dog. Herodotus (i. 192,) says that the governor of Baby- lon after its capture by Cyrus kept such a number of Indian dogs, that four considerable towns in the plain were exempted from all other taxes, and ap- pointed to supply food for the dogs. He tells us also (vii. 187) that an unmentionable number of these Indian dogs accompanied Xerxes’ army into Greece. Were they then used by the Persians in battle ? The molossus of Epirus was very eminent for the same qualities, and was probably of the same race ; the lion, tiger, panther, leopard, and boar, were in turn mastered by dogs of this kind. The ancients speak too of a Hyrcanian dog of great size, strength, and courage, which qualities were reputed to be in- creased by the breed being crossed with the tiger. This, however, was certainly a fable. It is not impossible, as Mr. Martin suggests, that these Hyr- canian dogs may have been cheetahs or hunting leopards, which have been, from time immemorial, used by the Orientals in the chase. Besides the mention of Nimrod and of Esau, the Scriptures take little notice of hunting, except by incidental allusions, which yet are sufficient to show that it was familiarly practised by the Hebrews. * Nat. Anim. viii. 1. 428 ASSYRIA. “ Canaan,” observes Wase, “ was hemmed in with deserts : there was the great Lebanon, and there was Mizpeh, and Tabor, and other mountains which abounded with game ; and in the royall age, I beleeve hunting itself was much frequented ; for though the sacred history do not, ex professo , take care to deliver us anything concerning these lighter recreations, yet the frequent representations made by it through- out the writers of that age, do give some probability that it was a frequent object among them, and taken from the common use. David’s persecutions are sometimes likened to fowling, oftentimes to hunting; his enemies dig a pit for him, they set a snare to catch his feet. No authors of human learning, whose works yet survive, make so much mention of gins as the Psalmes have made ; his enemies bend the bow, and make their arrows ready upon the string to shoot at the righteous. This was Esau’s artillery. . . . David’s enemies hide a net for him. (Ps. cxl. 5). Neither was it unknown to the Jewish huntsmen the way of driving beasts by an immision of fear, which is the formido et pinnatum , &c.”* The passages in which fullest mention is made of the stratagems and devices employed in hunting are the following. The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet. Job xviii. 7 — 11. * Gratius, De Venatione, Englished by C. Wase. 1654. Preface. HUNTING. 429 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, 0 inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit ; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare. Isa. xxiv. 17, 18. This “fear, ” (the formido , linea pinnata , and hiftctTct 3>)§cuv, of the classics,) was a line of great length, to which tufts of feathers were tied ; being extended through the woods, the continual flut- tering of the feathers in the wind prevented the timorous beasts from passing the boundary.* The same method is practised in Sicily at this day ; and, what is singular, it existed just as described, among the Red Indians of Newfoundland, who hunted the wild reindeer by its means. The “ straitening of the steps” of the hunted ani- mal, to which the Book of Job refers, whereby “ he is cast into a net by his own feet,” appears to allude to the inclosing of a large space with walls of net-work or some other barrier, gradually ap- proaching each other, until the outlet leads to an inclosure, whither the animals are driven, and where they are either captured alive, or killed by whole- sale. Elephants are taken in India and in Ceylon in this manner, which has been described by Pliny and Arrian, and, in modern times, with great felicity of detail by Mr. Corse. The length of the nets sometimes used by the ancients was astonishing, Plutarchf- mentions hunt- ing-nets above twelve miles long. With these large tracts of country were inclosed, by which all the animals of all kinds therein were forced into a nar- * See Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 389. t Life of Alexander. 430 ASSYRIA. row space at the end, where the slaughter was per- formed. Simul hirtus aper, simul ursa, lupusque Cogitur, et captas contemnit cerva leones. — Stat. Achill. i. 465. Instead of the walls of nets, or of felled trees, walls of living men are often employed by the Ori- ental princes, who, by shouts and the clashing of weapons, force the animals onward, and hem them in, until they reach the place whither they are in- tended to be driven. Something like this practice was adopted in the later periods of Assyria. Xeno- phon alludes to this in a passage of some interest. “ The son of the king of Assyria, being to celebrate his nuptials, had a mind at that time to hunt ; and hearing that there was plenty of game upon the borders of the Assyrians and Medes, they having not been hunted because of the war between the nations; hither he desired to go. That he might hunt therefore securely, he took with him a body of horse, and another of light-armed foot, who were to drive the beasts out of their fastnesses into the open cultivated country.”* The prophet Ezekiel, in his allegory of the history of Israel under the similitude of a young lion (xix. 1 — 9), evidently alludes to this mode of hunt- ing, by raising the whole country against a wild beast, by inclosing him with nets, and by thus driving him into a pit, in order to take him alive for a royal show. (See especially ver. 8). The impotent rage of “a wild bull in a net” is alluded to by Isaiah (li. 20). In Alexander’s conquest of Bactria he found * Ashley’s Cyrop. i. HUNTING. 431 the country studded with parks or paradises, some- what similar to the forests of our Norman kings, in which wild animals were allowed to breed undis- turbed for the diversion of the monarch. One of these was reported to have remained undisturbed for four generations. A spot well wooded, and supplied with water, was inclosed with lofty walls, and then stocked with all kinds of wild beasts. Xenophon speaks of such a paradise of great extent belonging to Cyrus, near the source of the Maeander ; and the desert space confined within the walls of fallen Babylon was turned to this ignoble purpose by the Parthian kings. It was in the undisturbed park of Bazaria, pro- bably near the modern Bokhara, that the Macedonian conqueror encountered the lion, whose death is recorded as a proof of his prowess. The king was on foot, and in front of his armed retainers, when an enormous lion, roused from his lair, faced him, and prepared for his spring. Lysimachus, who had himself killed a lion in single combat, on the banks of the Euphrates, interposed to preserve his sove- reign from the danger; but Alexander, jealous of his honour, ordered him to retire, saying that he, too, could kill lions. Accordingly he received the lordly savage on the point of his hunting-spear, as he was making his bound, and that with so much judgment and courage, that the wound was instantly fatal. Four thousand head of wild beasts were slaughtered in this royal preserve. From the immense range of country over which these paradises were maintained, extending through thirty degrees of longitude, from Asia Minor to 432 ASSYRIA. Bactria, and from the antiquity of the period up to which we trace them, the time of Cyrus, and four generations, at least before Alexander, — we cannot well err in concluding them to have been used by the later Assyrian kings, if indeed they were not, as Mr. Layard supposes, the inventors of them.* In- deed in the Khorsabad palace, there was a hall,f the sculptured decoration of which consisted of bas- reliefs which probably represented such a scene. In a country thickly covered with trees, the coni- cal form of which as well as the angle of their rami- fication indicates the pine family, a tall mountain is represented, whose sides and summit are clothed with a forest of the same timber. These peculiarities probably point at a northern region among the moun- tains of Media or Armenia. The very apex of the hill is crowned by a fluted pillar of elegant form, perhaps marking the boundaries of the Assyrian do- minions. J At the foot of the mountain is a lake, * Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 4B2. + Botta, pi. 108 — 114. ± “ If no convenient rock could be found, or if the king wished to mark the boundaries of his dominions, a square pillar or slab was erected, as on HUNTING. 4 33 apparently with paved edges, surrounded by a garden planted with shrubs and fruit-trees. In the midst of these, close to the water’s edge, stands a little kiosk or pavilion, the structure of which is distyle in antis , or presenting two columns in a portico. The columns have capitals with double volutes, almost exactly the same as those of the Ionic order. The palace is raised on a platform of masonry, the front part of which seems to project over a portion of the lake, supported by low pillars springing out of the water. The roof is flat, projecting with a sloping cornice, and bounded by a battlemented wall cut in gradines.* The lake is stocked with fish, and two small boats float upon its waters, for the use of the royal owner. To this pavilion the monarch is seen approaching in his chariot, accompanied by his charioteer, and the eunuch who holds the parasol over his head. He is not armed, but carries in his left hand a bunch of the blue lotus lily, the (i Sacred bean” of the an- cients, and holds up his open right hand as if in the act of speaking. Before the chariot march the guards in pairs, two armed with the spear, two with the mace, but wearing no helmet nor other arms, except the summit of the pass of Kel-i-Shin, in the high mountains dividing As- syria from Media.” — Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 182. The plains and mountains of Sultanieh are at present the hunting-ground of the Shah of Persia, where antelopes, partridges, and bustards, are found in abundance. — Morier, Second Journey, p. 205. * In the magnificent ‘ Voyage en Perse’ of Messrs. Flandinand Coste, there are several examples of modern palatial architecture, which bear a striking resemblance in essential points to this. Such are the palace of Tchar-Bach at Ispahan (pi. 57) ; the House of Hossein Khan at Tabriz (pi. vii.); and especially the Kiosk or pavilion at Haineh Khaneh at Ispahan (pi. xliv.). U 434 ASSYRIA. the sword in the girdle. Several horsemen follow their lord, the foremost carrying a long spear or lance, the others unarmed. Behind this group, but separated by a slab which no longer exists, is a party whom the king may be supposed to have left still engaged in the pursuit of game. It consists of many men on horseback and on foot, and some eunuchs. One of these last alone is represented as using the bow, and he is in the act of shooting at a bird, but from the position of an arrow in another bird in the act of falling, there were probably other bowmen in slabs that are now defaced. The horsemen urge on their galloping steeds, with a short whip of three points; another, having tucked his whip beneath his girdle, holds his hunting spear in his hand. Some of the sportsmen have dismounted, leaving their horses in the care of grooms, for such we suppose them to be from their peculiar dress, they alone being decorated with the pearled belt that distinguishes the grooms mentioned as bringing the royal chariot in the preparation for a journey. (See ante p. 165.) These grooms and other men carry the game that is killed, holding it just as we should, the hares by the hind legs, the birds by the feet, or by the wings. Many birds are represented, some in flight, some on the trees, and others on the ground. Several are running up the sides of the mountain in the rear of the lake. Though conventionally drawn, there is evidently an attempt at discrimination of species, but not sufficient to enable us to do more than guess at two or three. One, from its hooked beak and from its action, running up the perpendicular trunk HUNTING. 435 of a tree, — may probably be a bird of the cuckoo family; a large bird several times repeated, with the two central feathers much longer than the rest, is perhaps the pheasant, as it is evidently an object of desire to the sportsmen, and the mountain woods SHOOTING PARTY. of Armenia are the native haunts of that fine bird. Some without any conspicuous tail-feathers are pro- bably partridges and quails, both of which are hunted eagerly in those mountains to this day. But the most interesting is a large bird which appears from its form, gait, and arching tail, to be our common cock ; it is walking freely on the ground in the midst of the trees. How far this may be evidence of the early presence of the poultry-fowl in Western Asia, we will not presume to decide; it is certain that it was known to the early Greek writers as no recent introduction.* Two species of Jungle-fowl * The cock and hen are distinctly represented in the Xanthian sculp- tures of an era probably contemporaneous with the Lower Dynasty of Assyria. They appear also on Etruscan paintings probably of a higher antiquity. (See Mrs. Gray’s Etruria, pp. 28, 45.) In Hindostan, its native country, the cock was domesticated in a very remote antiquity, 436 ASSYRIA. (G alius Sonnerattii et G. Stanleyi) are at present found wild in the Western Ghauts of Hindostan ; the former of which has been assumed to be the original of our domestic breeds. No beasts are depicted except hares, and these only dead ones in the hands of the attendants. Two curious objects appear in the forest: on the top of a stout staff, like the trunk of a tree denuded of branches, is fixed a circular disk, ornamented with a radiating pattern, like some of the shields of the same era ; it is painted red, and reminds us of the targets set up in modern archery. Another disk (or shield ?) of similar form bears the figure of a lion on its surface, the tail curved over the back : the slab, however, is unfortunately so defaced that a portion of the disk is gone, and nothing remains, except its elevated position, to show whether it also was set on a pole, like the former. The use of these objects we cannot conjecture. We think there can be no doubt that we have here an original representation of an Asiatic park or TTctgudeio-os, with its provisions for the recreation and enjoyments of its royal owner. The mountain locality, the lake, the fishes, the pleasure-skiffs, the palace, the garden, the abundance of game, the pre- sence of the king and the occupation of his retinue, all agree well with what the Greeks have handed down to us concerning the nature and intention of those inclosures. perhaps as early as the 12th century B.C ; for in the Institutes of Menu, which Sir W. Jones assigns to that age, we read of “the breed of the town-cock” (v. 12) ; and of the practice of cock-fighting (ix. 222). COSTUME. 437 COSTUME. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers [clothed with blue, ver. 6] clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men She saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pour- trayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity. Ezek. xxiii. 12 — 15. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver ; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work. Ezek. xvi. 10 — 13. The love of personal adornment, compounded doubtless of the natural admiration which we feel for that which is beautiful, and the self-love which prompts us to associate ourselves with it, is not con- fined to any age or region, but prevails among the most savage and the most refined nations. But among the Asiatic races, this feeling has acquired the intensity of a passion, especially among the in- habitants of the Euphratean basin and the regions immediately adjoining. The plain of Shinar in very early times was celebrated for the gorgeousness of 438 ASSYRIA. its robes, as appears from the Ctf goodly Babylonish garment” which was found in the spoil of Ai (Josh, vii. 21), and caused such trouble to Israel. And at a later era this celebrity was by no means diminished. The Greek and Roman writers have left us abundant testimony to the splendour of Babylonish apparel. The mantles wrought on the Euphrates found their way to the western world, principally through the Phoenician traders, and were held in high esteem. They were of brilliant and various colours, generally arranged in figured patterns, probably resembling those of modern Turkey carpets. We cannot cer- tainly gather from the loose manner in which they are described, whether the colours were painted or dyed on the stuffs, whether they were interwoven in the loom, or were embroidered with the needle. Per- haps all these modes were in use.* But it is certain that from their glossiness and tasteful combination of beautiful colours, they produced a very rich and splendid effect; they were also very costly, and considered as indicative of great luxury in the wearers. The stern and rugged Cato gave a testi- mony against the effeminacy and voluptuousness of * Martial, in praising the beauty of the textile fabrics of Egypt, says, “ the shuttle of Memphis has at length surpassed the Babylonian needle .” (Epig. xiv.) According to Pliny, the loom was the medium used at Babylon. “ Coloured dresses,” he observes, “ were known in the time of Homer, . . . but from the Phrygians having been the first to invent a method of producing the same effect with the needle, these garments have been called Phrygiones. But to weave cloth with gold thread was the invention of an Asiatic king, Attalus, . . . and the Babylonians were most noted for their skill in weaving cloths of various colours.” Plin. xxxiii. 3. COSTUME. 439 his age, when (according to Plutarch) having received by inheritance a Babylonian mantle, he commanded it to be immediately sold. The fondness of the Medes for dress and personal decoration was proverbial. Xenophon repeatedly alludes to it. He describes Astyages, “set out and adorned, with his eyes and complexion painted, and with false hair,” as using only a style commonly allowed by his nation, “ for the purple coat, the rich habit called candys ,* collars about the neck, and bracelets around the wrists, all belong to the Medes.”|' The same author in another passage mentions with animadversion their soft couches, the carpets for their feet, “that the floors might not by resistance make a noise, but that the carpets mighf break the sound;” the “ garments with which they covered their heads, their bodies and their feet,” and, as these were not enough, the “ hair -gloves upon their hands” and the parasols under whose shadow they walked.J The Persians, the gorgeous splendour of whose attire is an unfailing theme of admiration with the Greek writers, were atfirst a simple and hardy people, but soon learned the habits of their effeminate and luxurious neighbours, the Medes. It is observable as showing the proverbial splendour of dress of the latter, that after the conquest of Babylon, and the * The Persian candys was a sleeved robe, hanging over the shoulders. That of the king was of purple, that of the grandees was edged with pur- ple. It was sometimes composed of skins (Ss^aT^v), or perhaps trimmed with furs. Jul. Pollux, vii. 13. It appears to have been an inner gar- ment. + Cyrop. i. J Ibid. viii. 440 ASSYRIA. possession of universal empire, the very quintessence of magnificence was “the Median robe,” which henceforward became the dress of honour. Cyrus, in disposing everything “ so as to appear most beautiful and noble , distributed the finest robes to the great- est men, and then produced other garments, all of the Median sort. For he had provided them in great numbers, and was not sparing either of the purple habits, or those of a dark colour, or of the scarlet, or of the murry (or mulberry colour). And these he distributed to the commanders.” We shall see that these Median robes were probably of silk. The value attached to raiment, as being reckoned, with gold and silver, among the most precious treasures, is shown by many passages in the Sacred Scripture ; and the custom just alluded to, a custom of very great antiquity, (Gen. xli. 4 2) of conferring splendid garments and ornaments as an expression of the royal favour, indicates the same habit of feeling. The custom has continued in full force to the present time, in all the Oriental countries, but is most con- spicuous in Persia. There the Khelai or dress of honour is the chief of the rewards and dignities which the sovereign can bestow, just as it was when Mordecai was clad “ in the royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple.” (Esth. viii. 15). “ All the circumstances,” observes Mr. Morier, “ attendant upon the reception of the khelat being the greatest criterions by which the public may judge of the degree of influence which the receiver has at court, every intrigue is exerted during the COSTUME. 441 preparation of the royal khelat, that it may be as indicative of the royal favour as possible. The person who is the bearer of it, the expressions used in the firman announcing its having been conferred, and the nature of the khelat itself, are all circumstances which are discussed as matters of the most mo- mentous importance and interest by the Persian public. The khelat usually consists of a kaba, or close coat, a bala push , or outer garment, a fine shawl for the head, and another for the girdle. If the khelat is designed to be splendid, the bala push is of gold brocade, and lined with fur, and the shawls are costly Indian ones ; and when it is intended to be in all respects complete, and of the highest distinction, the articles composing it are exactly the same as those which the ancient Persian monarchs are des- cribed by the Greek historians as bestowing on those they designed to honour ; namely, in addition to the dress, a horse with a golden bridle, a chain of gold, and a sword in a golden sheath. If any of these articles have been used by the king himself, the honour is the greater.5’ We shall presently have occasion to allude to the glittering splendour of the state dresses worn by the Shah of Persia, but for the present shall content ourselves with observing that nothing com- parable to it is known in the world beside. The Holy Scriptures, as we have seen, in their brief allusions to Assyrian manners, intimate that they also partook of the passion for magnificent vestments. Ezekiel repeatedly mentions the gor- geous clothing of the captains and rulers, which 442 ASSYRIA. is particularly described as blue (the royal Persian colour, Esth. viii. 15), and Nahum speaks of the valiant men as clad in scarlet (Nab. ii. 3), by which colour is probably meant what we should now call crimson . The sculptures, though they give copious repre- sentations of the king and the grandees of Assyria, afford us little light on the colours or materials of the garments that invested them ; the medium of preservation admits only of the tradition of forms, but by these alone we are able to infer somewhat of the richness of costume that adorned the court of Nineveh. Long, flowing robes, more or less loose, have always been characteristic of Asiatic dress ; but the form and fashion of the constituent garments differ among different nations more than is commonly supposed. The imperfect perspective employed by the Assyrian artists, who knew not how to fore- shorten, and the absence of all folds in the bas- reliefs, produce much difficulty in our minds when we would describe from these monuments the mode in which the garments were cut, and the manner in which they were put on. The Persian sculptures, however, of the Achsemenian dynasty, only a little later in point of antiquity, may afford us some help, especially as during the execution of these, folds began to be introduced in statuary. At Persepolis, king Darius is represented clad in a caftan or robe of great fulness, reaching to the ankles, but gathered up at the girdle on each side, so as to fall in one, or sometimes two, groups of COSTUME. 443 perpendicular folds. Over this is a large cape or tippet, which reaches as far as the wrists when the arms hang down by the side, but is hollowed out in front as high as the waist, to admit of the projection of the sword- sheath at the girdle. Shoes slashed across the instep protect the feet, and the head is crowned with a cylindrical tiara. The attendants on the monarch wear a camees or shirt reaching to the knee, shown in these figures by the shortness of the coat, which ex- tends to the thighs, and is open all up the front, the corners square, and a little produced. Over this is a cape, shorter than that of the king, and open in front nearly up to the throat. The feet are protected by boots, half- leg high, without trowsers. A costume like this seems to have been common to several nations of Western Asia. It is represented in Egyptian sculptures on figures which, from the accessories of the scenes, as well as from hieroglyphic inscriptions, are proved to be the inhabitants of Lebanon. And in the brilliantly-coloured and per- fectly-preserved paintings in the tomb of Rameses- Mei-Amun, it distinguishes figures considered to DARIUS. 444 ASSYRIA. represent the people of Tyre. Nor is its magni- ficence unworthy of that “ crowning city;1’ for the shirt appears to he of fine linen, and the coat and cape of woollen cloth, each dyed of two co- lours, half being scarlet, and half deep blue or purple. The figures of Xerxes at Persepolis are dressed (as are those of his para- sol-bearer and fly-flap- per) nearly in the same fashion as Darius, but the cape is free only at the sides, where it forms very loose sleeves, the back being of one piece, with the caftan , as appears by the girdle being shown there.* The four-winged figure of Cyrus at Pasargadae has a very different vesture. It is a long robe reaching from the neck to the ankles, rather closely fitting the person, without any attempt at folds. It is open all down one side, where the edge over- TYRIAN. ( From an Egyptian 'painting.') * This seems the only approach which the sculptures present to the sleeved tunic, which, according to Strabo (lib. xii.), the Persians adopted from the Medes. It is worthy of remark that very broad sleeves are still a striking peculiarity in the costume of the Koords, the inhabitants of what was ancient Media. u The Pasha’s sleeves are at least a yard and a half in breadth at the wrist.” — Perkin’s Residence in Persia, 382. COSTUME. 445 laps in such a way as to suggest that it consisted of a large piece of cloth wound round and round the body. It has an embroidered border and an edging of fur. There is no trace of a cape, but the garment CYRUS. is furnished with short sleeves, reaching nearly to the elbow. He wears no mitre,* but a singular ap- * Xenophon describes Cyrus in public procession as appearing with a mitre that was raised high above his head, a vest of purple mixed with white (probably in stripes) ; a mixture denied to any but the sovereign ; over this he wore a robe of purple only, and boots on his legs of yellow leather ; the historian mentions expressly the diadem or wreath that en- circled the royal mitre, and speaks of it as worn by the king’s relatives also. Cyrop. viii. The boots of yellow leather have descended to the present day. 446 ASSYRIA. pendage closely resembling that on some Egyptian idols (as Chnumis and Sevek-ra) ; which as well as his eagle-wings, probably indicates a mythological or sacerdotal, rather than a royal aspect, in which he was intended to appear. We know that Cyrus ordinarily wore the royal mitre or tiara. Let us now turn to the monuments from Nim- roud. In the scene, already alluded to, where the monarch appears seated on a stool-throne, receiving a cup in the presence of his priests, — we find him arrayed in a robe, closely resembling that of Cyrus; a loose wrapper folding-over down one side, coming up close around the neck, and furnished with close sleeves terminating a little above the elbow. This robe has the whole breast, and a wide border, covered with mythological figures and scenes, most exqui- sitely and delicately embroidered with the needle, or painted with the pencil. An inner robe, the edge of which is seen below that of the former, has a similar border of embroidering. The outer robe has a broad edging of a material, which from its identity with the conventional mode of representing the coats of sheep, goats, &c., is, without a doubt, intended for fur. A narrow belt or ribbon, edged on one side with fur three or four times its own width, passes over the left shoulder, and down to the right hip, over the girdle (which encircles the robe), and over the sword-hilt : and a sort of cape (or scarf, for it is difficult to tell its real character) hangs down be- hind the shoulders to the waist, the end of which is richly embroidered and fringed with tassels. COSTUME 447 EMBROIDERED ROBE ( NimrOlld ), 448 ASSYRIA. On ordinary occasions, the wrapped robe was exchanged for a mantle, open up each side to the shoulders, thus forming two hanging portions, reach- ing nearly to the feet, the corners of one portion, sometimes of both, being rounded. The borders were generally embroidered in a pattern of rosettes, and edged either with fur, or a fringe of tassels closely resembling that of our bed-furniture, &c.* Sometimes the under- gown is represented as cut short in front, on a level with the knees, while the hinder portion descends to the ankles ; the margin of the former, like that of the latter, is fringed and tasseled, and from the angle on each side, or perhaps from a higher point, descend two long cords with ter- minating tassels, each pair sometimes knotted together. When this form of the undergown is worn, it is accompanied by a corresponding abbre- viation of the front portion of the divided mantle. It is seen principally on the winged priests ; who * Fringe, identically the same in form and construction, in which the tassels are made of gold and silver thread alternately, /or of coloured silk, — is used now by the native princes of India, for bordering their state parasols, and other furniture. SPENCER AND SKIRT. COSTUME. 449 appear sometimes to have worn an outer mantle composed entirely of fur.* Out of doors, as when engaged in hunting or in battle, the early Assyrian kings and grandees often wore a close-fitting jacket or spencer; from the hinder part of which descended, to about half-way down the thighs, a curious appendage, a square piece of cloth, in general elaborately embroidered, even when the other garments were plain, and fur- nished at each corner with two long cords terminating in tassels. The ordinary dress of the Assyrian men was a plain robe, with the margin embroidered and edged with a fringe. Eunuchs commonly, but not always, wore it very long, reaching to the feet ; that of men more generally reached only to the calf of the leg, or to the knees. The width of the marginal em- broidery appears to have borne some proportion to the rank of the wearer ; the grooms, and such like persons, often were destitute of it, their garment being only fringed ; yet this rule was not without exceptions, for sometimes the vizier’s robe was pro- fusely embroidered, when that of the monarch before whom he stood, displayed comparatively little of this decoration. In the time of the Lower Dynasty the ordinary dress of the king differed less in the general form than in the style of its decoration, from that of the early monarchs. That in which Shalmaneser is Layard, pis. 7 and 7 a. ASSYRIA, SHALMANESER AND HIS VIZIER. COSTUME. 451 commonly figured was very beautiful. It consisted of an under-gown or caftan , fitting rather close to the body, and reaching from the neck to the ankles ; furnished with short sleeves tightly em- bracing the upper arm, and terminating sufficiently high to display the encircling armlets. This gar- ment was either embroidered or woven in an elaborate but regular pattern, such as that composed of the repetition of a square figure of double lines, with a central rosette or star. The usual broad fringe of tassels formed the lower extremity, sometimes united at their tips by an edging of four rows of beads, pro- bably pearls. Orer this gown was thrown the divided mantle ; the skirts of which, one before and one behind, hung in a very elegant manner, about as low as the knees, with both extremities rounded. A pattern of embroidered work covered its whole surface, com- posed of a circular, many-petalled flower, or rosette, repeated in quincuncial order; the margin was a pattern like that of the under gown, and was edged with a broad fringe instead of fur. The edging and fringe running up on each side of the lateral open- ings, and falling over the shoulders in front, im- parted much elegance to this rich garment. At the waist a sort of pocket was formed, open at each end, beneath the edging and the fringe, through which the sword in its highly ornamented sheath passed liori- zontally, the hilt projecting in front, and the tip extending to some distance behind the royal person. When we describe this mantle as opened up each side, we do but speak conjecturally ; for the sculp- 4 52 ASSYRIA. tures can only represent one side. It is just possible that one side only may have been open, in which form it would present an analogy to those very sin- gular garments which are seen on so many Asiatic figures in the monuments of ancient Egypt, and in particular by some of the gorgeously coloured representatives of Semi- tic nations in the tomb of Rameses-Mei-Amun.* One of these, a man of the Tehen-nu (supposed by some to be the Hit- tites) is here represented. Some of the sculptures suggest the thought that the opening was single, and extended up the front ; and only repre- sented up the side by the artists’ deficiency of a knowledge of drawing. But there are some representations which preclude this explanation, such for example as that of a female accompanying some camels, on a slab from the Central Palace of Nimroud, now in the Brit- ish Museum. It is true this female is a captive from some foreign people ; but the costume is evi- A SEMITIC COSTUME. {From an Egyptian ■painting?) * See Osburn’s ‘ Egypt ; Her Testimony to the Truth/ pp. 25, 42, 125, &c., for a description of this dress, and for the identification of those who wore it, “ the Namoos,” with an Euphratean race. COSTUME. 453 dently identical with that under consideration ; which indeed, was worn by several of the tribes, with which the Assyrians habitually warred.* It is by no means improbable that it was commonly worn by the Hebrew race ; and that the word ( Jcanajoh ), rendered skirt in the following and other passages, hut which literally signifies a wing , refers to the long fringed wing-like divisions of this sort of mantle. Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid ; for thou art a near kinsman. Ruth iii. 9. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he [that is, Saul, apparently] laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. 1 Sam. xv. 27. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. 1 Sam. xxiv. 4. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? Hag. ii. 12. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold , out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew. Zech. viii. 23. We have marked with Italics those words which in the above passages appear to us favourable to the supposition, that the form of the skirted mantle of the Jews was very similar to that of the Assyrian. The officers of the court, in the Khorsahad era, wore a long gown similar in form to that of the king, hut unadorned, except at the lower edge, where the border, the fringe of tassels, and the rows of pearls (?) were the same as on the garment of their master : its short sleeves had no border. It fitted close to the shape, and was encircled at the waist by a girdle, * The Phoenicians for example. See p. 392, ante. 454 ASSYRIA. apparently of loose texture ; perhaps like that which Josephus describes as worn by the Jewish priests, “ so loosely woven that you would think it were the skin of a serpent.”* Over this was worn a vest of singular form ; it was wholly of fur, with the ex- ception of a broad belt of embroidered work which formed its upper margin, and passed obliquely over the left shoulder and under the right arm. The fur of the body of this garment was disposed in two layers, of which the upper was oblique, and parallel to the belt, the lower was horizontal. This curious vest will he better understood by a reference to the figures on pp. 157, and 158. The use of furs was nearly general among all the Asiatic tribes settled in countries above the 40° ofN. lat. The Scythians used cloaks of fur. They were also worn in Babylon, being considered a necessary to wealth, rank, and beauty. Furs are among the presents of the governors, represented on the great relief of P-ersepolis ; and this object of luxury was in great estimation among the Indians from the most ancient times.f In the Ramayana (i. 605), we find mention of furs among the costly presents made to a princess by her father on the occasion of her marriage. J * Antiq. III. vii. 2. t Heeren’s Researches ii. 284, 296. X Robes trimmed with fur are very much worn in Persia at this day. In the hhelat , or royal present of raiment, there is usually a bala push, or pelisse of gold brocade, lined with the finest furs. Sir Robert Ker Por- ter, describing the magnificent ceremonial of the Nurooz, notices the princes of the blood in terms highly illustrative of the costume of the As- syrian court. “ They were all superbly habited, in the richest brocade vests and shawl-girdles, from the folds of which glittered the jewelled COSTUME. 455 In the sculptures of the same era there is often represented a long pointed piece of fringe, attached to a very narrow strip of cloth, merely sufficient to carry it, hanging down on the right side to the middle of the leg. It much resembled a wing in form, and was worn only when the garments were very short. We incline to think from several ap- pearances, though we cannot positively assert the fact, that in every period, it was not un- usual to wrap a very long narrow strip of fur or fringe, round and round the body, crossing over the shoulders, over the breast, and around the . , . FRINGED LAPPET. waist, with many cir- cumvolutions ; and it may he that this wing-like ap- pendage was the end, allowed to hang loose. Narrow lappets of this sort, always fringed, seem to have been favourite appendages, appearing on various parts of the attire. The copious use of fringes appears from the evi- hilts of their daggers. Each wore a robe of gold stuff, lined and deeply collared with the most delicate sables , falling a little below the shoulder, and reaching to the calf of the leg. Around their black caps they also had wound the finest shawls. Every one of them, from the eldest to the youngest, wore bracelets of the most brilliant rubies and emeralds, just above the bend of the elbow.” 456 ASSYRIA. dence of Egyptian, as well as Assyrian and Baby- lonian monuments to have been highly characteristic of the costume of Western Asia. iEschylus re- peatedly* alludes to fringe (A axis) upon the robes of the Egyptian ladies ; no trace of such an appendage, however, appears on the numerous monuments of Ancient Egypt, on native costume. f Perhaps he confounded the “ purfled stoles” of Western Asia with the costume of Egypt, or the latter may have adopted them in his time from her Persian con- querors. And we know that they were distinctly commanded to the Jewish people by solemn, ex- press, and repeated ordinances of their law, whence it has been inferred that there was some recognized religious idea attached to them. Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a riband of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them. Numb. xv. 38, 39. Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself. Deut. xxii. 12. The term “fringe” in these passages is in the original represented by two distinct words, which are supposed to differ in their meaning. That used in the former (Jl^, zizith ) elsewhere means a lock of hair (Ezek. viii. 3), and was possibly analogous to the edging of fur that we see upon the Assyrian mantles. The word of the latter passage gedilim ) is supposed to have signified strings with tassels at the end , fastened to the corners of the Supplicants, passim. t See Wilk. iii. 346. COSTUME. 457 garment.* If this was so, it is illustrated with singu- lar felicity, by the tasseled cords which hung from the corners of the Assyrian frocks already described, -j* Trowsers or drawers were not worn, as far as we can judge, in the early ages, either by the Assyrians or by the nations with whom they had intercourse. The knees of the warriors that are depicted with very short frocks, are naked ; and the reversal of the loose garments on wounded enemies as they fall from the battlements, shows that nothing of the kind in ques- tion was worn by them. In later times, however, the thighs and legs were occasionally covered ; though whether we are to regard the covering as armour or raiment, we are not quite certain. We have de- scribed its appearance on a previous page. Herodotus (i. 71.) describes the Persians, before their conquest of the Lydians, as wearing, among other garments, trowsers of leather. In the Perse- politan and other Persian sculptures, figures are introduced wearing trowsers, wide and loose, but tight at the ankles, very different in form from those of the later Assyrians, but agreeing closely with those worn by the modern Persians. Strabo asserts with probability, that the tiara, the pileus, sleeved garments, and trowsers were adopted by the Persians from the Medes, remarking that the northern position and mountainous region of the latter made such garments more suitable to them than to their suc- cessors.J Loose robes, like those of the Assyrians, require * See Kitto, Piet. Bible, i. 369. t See engravings on pp. 98 and 101. + Geog. lib. xi. X 458 ASSYRIA. to be kept about the person by girdles, and we sup- pose were always so fastened among them ; though frequently the cincture does not appear, from an outer robe being thrown over all. Its form was various, but the most common was a very broad plain belt, which appears to have passed more than once round the waist, the last circumvolution becom- ing much more narrow, and each end terminating in a clasp, of which so great is the variety that scarcely two examples can be found alike. At Khorsabad the zone was sometimes made of open net- work, as if knit ; and sometimes a narrow elastic web of similar texture was attached to the clasp.* The colossal lion-cherubs that guarded the portals at Nimroud were girded around the loins with a cincture, resembling a narrow ribbon, tied in a knot, the ends furnished with tassels. In one of the Nimroud battle scenesf warriors are represented as wearing, in addition to the ordinary belt passing over the right shoulder and supporting the sword, a sort of belt of considerable width, em- * The girdles worn by the Turks are usually of worsted, very artfully woven into a variety of figures ; and they are made to fold several time round the body. The Turks fix therein their knives and poniards. — Shaw’s Travels, i. 409, 410. •f Layard, pi. 26. COSTUME. 459 broidered and edged with fur, passing from the left shoulder to the right waist. They wear short coats, apparently composed of broad parallel plates or folds, embellished with rosettes ; perhaps a lorica of leather or linen. The royal headdress imparted by its height and form dignity to the wearer. It was a sort of mitre or cap, in shape resembling a truncated cone, with a mitres (Nimroud). little point or peak, sometimes of two gradations, rising from the centre of the crown. A broad band, or upturned fold of the material, surrounded the base rising to a point above the forehead, and furnished at its hinder part with two long ribbons, which hung down the back. In some instances this band was plain, like the mitre itself, but more commonly it was richly ornamented ; divided perpendicularly into compartments, and decorated with one or more beau- 460 ASSYRIA. tiful rosettes. The edge of the crown and the peak were sometimes encircled with ornamental bands. From the hinder part depended two long ribbons of coloured material, reaching as low as the waist, each terminated by an ornamental border and a wide fringe. In the era of the Lower Dynasty the mitre was worn higher, and of a more graceful outline : it was furnished with three bands, more highly decorated with rosettes of large size, and other ornaments. This conical headdress appears to have been peculiar to the king ; it is never seen on any person- age but himself, and he is never depicted without it. That this mitre was identical with the tiara worn by the Persian monarchs, and by them called cidaris (xfictgig), is almost certain. We gather from the Greek writers that its form approached that of a cone, terminating in an upright point ; and that it was stiff and erect ; whereas the common tiara, or pileus , worn by the Persians, was, like that of the Assyrians, flexible, and fell over at the summit. It was surrounded by a blue band, (or sometimes one of purple) embroidered with white. * Some have supposed that the body of the cidaris was blue, and the band purple and white ; others, that by blue we should understand purple, i.e ., crimson, rose-red, or flesh-colour.'j' We shall presently see reason to con- clude that the colours might vary. It is very remarkable that no representation of the cidaris is found in the sculptures of the Persian monarchs of that era ; for the mitre with which they * Quint. Curt. iii. 3. t See Leraaire in loc. cit. COSTUME. 461 are furnished in the Acheemenian monuments, differs essentially from this in form and structure, and appears rather to have been borrowed, with mo- difications, from the cy- lindrical, horn-encircled mitre with a margin of feathers, that crowns the heads of the human- headed bulls of Khorsa- bad. Of what material the Assyrian mitre was made is uncertain. We incline to think that it was of felt, and that in essential structure it did not differ from the ordinary pileus, or pointed cap of the common people. We suppose that it was more lengthened in its form,* and that what appears a truncate crown was really an infolding of the sur- face, which again projected to form the peak. The following diagram will illustrate our notion ; in which the dotted lines represent the supposed ori- ginal shape, and the full lines a sectional outline of the mitre as completed. * A pointed cap of this very form is seen on the head of the Sacan or Scythian, in the Tablet of Darius at Behistun : it is the same that Ker Porter, oddly enough, supposed to be the pontifical mitre, and to represent the Tribe of Levi. mitre ( Khorsabad ). 462 ASSYRIA. SUPPOSED STRUCTURE OF THE MITRE. In tlie bas-reliefs at Khorsabad, the ground of the mitre is white, and the bands are red, with the rosettes and some of the inter spaces white. But on a fragment of a painted tile from the same palace, the mitre itself is red, and the bands white, with the rosettes and other orna- ments yellow. If any in- ference can be legitimate- ly deduced from these premises, we may sup- pose the mitre and its bands to have been of these two colours, arranged indifferently ; and the ornaments to have been of silver or of gold, or per- haps of precious stones set in these metals. The mitre of the High Priest of Israel was of fine linen (Exod. xxviii. 39), but the Scripture gives us no information on its form. Josephus sets himself most elaborately to supply the deficiency, but his account is unintelligible. We may gather that it was conical in shape, as he distinguishes the mitres of the common priests by saying that they were not conical ; — that it was encircled with swathes of blue embroidered, and that it was covered by one piece of fine linen to hide the seams.* The frontal part was covered by a plate of gold, wdiich was tied around the mitre with a ribbon of blue. * Antiq. III. vii. 3, 6. COSTUME. 463 High officers of the state, — the 11 crowned” cap- tains, whom the prophet Nahum (iii. 15) gra- phically compares to locusts, — were adorned with diadems, closely resembling the lower band of the royal mitre, separated from the cap itself.* Such was that of the vizier, which was broader in front than behind, was adorned with rosettes and compart- ments, and terminated in twro ribbons with em- DIADEMS. broidered and fringed ends, that hung down his back. This diadem and its fillets were sometimes red, with white rosettes. The head of a winged priest found at Nimroud was encircled by a narrow white ribbon, twisted, carrying large rosettes ; so coloured as to suggest that they were composed of rubies set in silver.f Another diadem of a priest from Khorsabad was adorned with large rosettes, alternating with ob- long blue gems, (?) the settings of which as well as the rosettes, being coloured red, were probably of gold. This diadem ended in a large projecting tassel behind. J Very commonly the head was encircled with a simple fillet or hoop, probably of gold, without any adornment ; but often the head was entirely bare, even of high officers, and in the open air. Chariot * The ten thousand principal Persians in Xerxes’ army wore crowns (Herod, vii. 55). t Layard, pi. 92. $ Botta, pi. 43. 464 ASSYRIA. warriors are seen at Nimroud and Kouyunjik, and hunters at Khorsabad, quite bareheaded; the king never. It is observable that while the diadem of the vizier was broad in front, and narrow behind, that of the chief eunuch was broad behind, and very narrow over the forehead. The latter was plain, ex- cept that a round button, probably a jewel, was set in its front.* A small head in white marble, evidently that of a woman, found in the south-east ruin of Nimroud, and now in the British Museum, has a headdress apparently formed of an elegant veil, tied round the forehead, and thrown gracefully off on the left side behind the £ar.j~ The hair, both of the head and beard, was re- markably copious, and was evidently tended and cherished with the same elaborate care as that with which it is regarded in the East to this day, or even more. The former descended, in a large mass, care- fully curled at the tip into four or five rows of small close-set ringlets, upon the shoulders, where it was supported on each side by a loop formed of the descending mitre-ribbon. The hair was waved, but this effect, if not merely a conventionalism of the ar- tist, was doubtless produced by the hair-dresser. The beard was disposed in small curls ail over the face and chin, but, below it, was arranged into a long * The fine head of marble in the cabinet of the Abb6 Fauvel, figured in Montfaucon (tom. iii. pt. 1. pi. 43), and considered by him to be that of a Parthian king, so closely resembles that of an Assyrian officer of state, wearing the diadem, or simple fillet, that it is probable such was the design of the artist. f Layard, pi. 95, fig. 7. COSTUME. 465 square form, reaching to the breast, composed of spiral rouleaus, with series of small curls occurring at regular intervals. The king and the vizier, in early times, had two or three series, each consist- ing of three or four rows of curls. The fashion in Shalmaneser’s time was slightly different; four series of curls interrupted the rouleaus, each composed of but a single row, except the last, which had three rows. Inferior officers, such as the royal grooms, cultivated the same style, but with only one or two rows of curls. The moustache, trimmed and curled, was worn on the upper lip. The “dyed attire upon their heads” which the prophet Ezekiel describes the Chaldaean princes as wearing, probably alluded to their copious and ela- borately trimmed hair and beards, which seem to have been dyed black like those of the modern Persians. Xenophon* describes the Medes of his day as habitually wearing false hair ; and some have supposed the ample coiffures of the Assy- rians seen in the sculptures to have been arti- ficial. Their amplitude alone is no sufficient reason for such a conclusion ; since hair and beards equally voluminous are quite common in the East at this day, especially among the Persians. It is not im- probable, however, that false hair was worn, since another fashion mentioned in the same passage as common to the Medes, was certainly practised by the Assyrians. We allude to the staining of the eye-lids, lashes, and brows with a black pigment, to heighten the brilliancy of the eyes by the con- * Cyrop. i. 466 ASSYRIA. trast of colour, and to impart a peculiar softness and beauty of expression to those organs. This custom appears to have prevailed among many of the ancient COIFFURE OF STATUE. nations ; besides those already mentioned, the Egyp- tians,* Hindoos, f Babylonians, J Jews,§ and Romans|| practised it, as do all the modern Mohammedan * Wilkinson, iii. 880. t The Institutes of Menu recognise the practice as in use among men (iv. 152) and women (iv. 44) ; — as well as the scenting of the person in both sexes with essences, (vii. 220). X Nicol. Damasc. See Layard, ii. 333. § 2 Kings ix. 30; Jer. iv. 30. j| With sooty moisture one his eyebrows dyes, And with a bodkin paints his trembling eyes. Juv. Sal. ii. 93. COSTUME. 467 nations. The powder of lead ore, called kohl, is mostly used for this purpose, but sometimes the soot of burnt almonds, or fragrant resins is substituted for it. The tip of a kind of bodkin, being moist- ened, and dipped into the powder, is inserted between the eyelids, when the motion of the eye instantly diffuses the stain all around the edge. The effect is fine, even to European taste. At present the practice is confined to women, but among the ancient Assyrians, as among the Medes and Romans, it was observed even by men. They used paints and cosmetics also, to increase the delicacy of their complexion ; and Mr. Layard informs us that traces of thick black and white pigments remained on the sculptures, particularly on the eyes, eyebrows, and hair, when they were discovered.* This confirms what Athenmus tells us of the effeminate Sardanapalus : — “ When Arbaces the Median, one of his prefects, wished to see Sardanapalus, and by means of one of the household-eunuchs obtained the privilege, — he found the king painted with white-lead and adorned in womanly fashion, carding purple with his ladies, and sitting on high with them with his feet ex- tended, clothed in a woman’s robe, his beard shaven, and his face rubbed smooth with pumice-stone. He was whiter than milk, and had his eyes and eyebrows pencilled, and actually retouched his eyes with the paint after he had looked upon Arbaces ; a sight that filled the Mede with indignant contempt for such a king.”f * Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 328. t Athen. xii. 468 ASSYRIA. In the shoes or sandals worn, the protection of the heel was the object desired, and not that of the toes. An idea of the form, at least in the latter era, may be obtained by supposing one of our high- heeled slippers to be cut down in a diagonal line to the middle of the foot on each side, the whole front being rejected. It was retained on the heel, by a lacing which passed over the instep, and through three lace-holes on the outer, and two in the inner edge. Where the colours with which the sculptured figures were painted still remain, as in a bas-relief at Khorsabad, we can see that the royal sandals were made of coloured leather, tastefully arranged in alter- nate bands of blue and orange, or else wholly red, and that the laces display the same two colours, probably being formed of twisted or plaited thongs. In some representations a flexible, thin sole is seen projecting beyond the toes, a little bent up in front of them ; but in others nothing of the sort is dis- cerned, though it was probably always present. Affixed to the sole was a stout ring, through which the great toe was passed, while from the ring, or from the sole between the first two toes,* a strap, going to the instep-lace, maintained the whole firmly on the foot. In the Nimroud era, the sandal, though of the same general form, was longer, the quarters reaching nearly to the base of the toes. The sole was much * In one of the ivory fragments from Nimroud, representing a human foot, the great toe is widely separated at its base from the rest, in a pecu- liar manner, which appears to be caused by the habitual presence of a strap between them. COSTUME. 469 stouter and stiffer. The toe-ring is seen as in the later time, but the arrangement of the thongs was as follows : one proceeded from the toe to the binding SANDALS. of the sandal on each side, where there were two small loops or eyes, whence two straps passed across the instep. The toe-ring was sometimes ornamented, and was perhaps formed of precious metal. We per- ceive that the sandal was not prohibited, as now, by etiquette in courtly scenes, nor by religion as of old among the Hebrews, in those devoted to worship. From the point where the short sleeves of the robe terminated, which was never so low as the elbows, — the arms were invariably bare of clothing, though commonly encircled with armlets and bracelets. The former were more frequently lacking than the latter ; they were situated on the upper arm just above the bend of the elbow. In the Nimroud era each arm- let sometimes consisted of a plain ring, doubtless of precious metal, the ends overlapping, so as to allow of their being opened to admit the hand and arm, and closing by their own elasticity when re- laxed. Those of the king, and other high person- ages, occasionally had the two ends made four-sided, and ornamented with an embossed pattern, or fashioned into rams’ heads. At Khorsabad the plain ring was sometimes worn, occasionally with lions’ faces for the two ends ; but 470 ASSYRIA. the common form was that of a rope or fascia com- posed of many parallel wires or strands, hound round at regular intervals by bands of the same. In every case, however, the armlet took two entire turns round the arm (instead of one as at the early period) before the ends overlapped. ARMLETS AND BRACELETS ( NwiVOud ). These ornaments were in all probability made of gold or silver; and as they were very thick, their weight must have been great. They were, however, we may suppose, not solid, but hollow, like those ancient ones of gold, found by Col. Rose in a sarco- phagus on Mount Lebanon; and indeed as they are worn at the present day. The weight, however, of those presented to Rebekah by Abraham’s servant was ten shekels, (Gen. xxiv. 22,) or nearly five ounces, which we should find exceedingly fatiguing : custom, however, and vanity, counterbalance inconve- nience. In other countries they were worn of much greater weight. William of Malmesbury (ii. 77) states that in the gorgeous ship which our own Earl Godwin sent to Hardicanute, there were eighty soldiers with bracelets of pure gold on both arms, each weighing sixteen ounces. But even these are COSTUME. 471 nothing compared with those worn by the early Romans, which according to Petronius Arbiter (§ 67) were of the incredible weight of six and even ten pounds ! * The bracelets worn by the Assyrians on the wrists at first exhibited little variety. The earliest form is that of a plain overlapping ring, exactly like the armlets, with the ends sometimes fashioned into rams’ heads. The only variation appears to have been the addition of a large rosette on the outside, probably composed of jewels. In the era of the Lower Dynasty, however, great variety of form and beauty of workmanship were bestowed upon the bracelets, which were very elaborate and delicate specimens of the jeweller’s art. Rosettes and other ornaments of precious stones, set in curiously shaped hoops of gold or silver, were common among the forms in use ; but the accompanying figures of selected examples, will convey a more distinct idea of them than any description. The passion for bracelets and armlets has in- creased rather than diminished in the East, with the lapse of time. The Assyrians never wore more than a single pair of each; but at present, it is notun- common to see many crowded on each arm, so as to cover the greater part of the space from the wrist to the elbow. A single pair is frequently heavier than * Bracelets were in use among most ancient nations, from the extreme east of Asia to north-west Europe. They were frequently bestowed as military or royal presents (AZlian, Hist. i. 22 ; Xenoph. Anab. i. 2, 27, &c.); or as votive offerings (Exod. xxxv. 22). — See the art. Armilla in the Penn. Cyclop. 472 ASSYRIA. those given to Rebekah, being, as Chardin has ob- served, more like manacles than ornaments. The common construction, as of old, is a ring open at one part ; the ends are frequently four-sided ; and rope- like forms are not unusual. The precious metals are of course preferred by those who can afford them, but steel, copper, pewter, and even horn bracelets are worn by those who can procure no better. bracelets ( Kliorsahad ). Perhaps the most costly examples of armlets that were ever made are those that form a part of the regalia of the Shah of Persia, having been brought by Nadir Shah among the spoils of the Mogul emperors of India. They are described as very broad, and of such dazzling splendour as to blaze like fire when they reflect the sun’s rays. The jewels in them are of such size and lustre that the pair are estimated to be worth a million sterling. The principal stones are famous throughout the East. That of the left armlet is called “ the Sea of COSTUME. 473 light;” it weighs 186 carats, and is considered as the diamond of finest water in the world. The chief stone of the other is scarcely less splendid ; its weight is 146 carats, and its lustre is denoted by the title “ Crown of the*moon.” Bracelets (probably including both kinds) were worn by men as well as women among the Hebrews. Judah wore them (Gen. xxxviii. 18), while yet resident in Canaan ; and so did King Saul, for “ the bracelet that was on his arm,” was a part of the spoil of which the Amalekite stripped the body of the fallen monarch in Gilboa (2 Sam. i. 10). It is commonly thought that the bracelet was peculiar to royalty ; but it certainly was not so among the Assyrians. Anklets or bangles around the legs, though com- mon in Ancient Egypt, and throughout modern Asia, were never worn in Assyria, in which the use of jewellery seems not to have been profuse. Nose- rings were also unknown. The use of ear-rings, however, prevailed at all times. In the Higher Dynasty the most common kind was a thick, almost cylindrical pendent, orna- mented with mouldings, and pointed, attached by a small ring to the ear.* This was interchanged with a form resembling three parts of a Maltese cross, of which sometimes the two lateral divisions were want- ing. These forms were worn alike by the king and his courtiers. At Khorsabad the ear-pendents were generally more elegant in design and more orna- * The conical and cylindrical ear-pendents, worn by the ancient Etruscans, may be compared with these. — See Mrs. Gray’s Etruria, 66. 474 ASSYRIA. mented. One, represented on a painted tile,* is yellow, with the edgings and mouldings white ; pro- bably intimating that the materials were gold and silver. We should suppose from the appearance of this ornament that it was always made of metal, never of gems or pearls. NECKLACES AND EAR-RINGS. Necklaces were worn by the king, priests and high officers in the early period, but were out of fashion at the Khorsabad era. Little variety ex- isted in their form. They consisted of lozenge- shaped gems (or perhaps coloured glasses) strung in one, two, or three series, alternating with round beads. A string was sometimes hung around the king’s neck,f from which were suspended little disks evidently of a religious character, representing the sun, the moon, the Maltese cross, (probably * Botta, pi. 155. t Layard, pi. 82. COSTUME. 475 intended for a planet) the horned cap, and the trident.* As sculpture can in general give only the forms of the objects which it represents, and as in these which we are considering the accessory colours , which might have aided us greatly if preserved in their original perfection, have only in very few cases survived the lapse of time, — our judgment concern- ing the materials of which those objects were com- posed must, almost always, be more or less hypo- thetical. The wonderful preservation, in the arid sepulchres of Egypt, of a multitude of articles of great interest used in ancient times in that country, affords us an extraordinary insight into the habits, manners, science, arts and manufactures of the early world. Future investigations may bring to light from the grave of buried Nineveh, or from the burned heaps of Babylon, similar materials for judg- ment, but at present we must speak conjecturally of many things, of which a more perfect knowledge would be desirable. We may, however, safely con- clude that, by a warlike, luxurious, and polished empire, such as Assyria was at the time of her ear- liest sculptured records, the resources of nature and art possessed by surrounding nations, would be neither unknown nor unappropriated. The use of precious stones, pearls, and similar productions dates from a very early age. Their brilliancy, colour, hardness, and durability could not fail to be noticed, * In the city Uyodhya, “none was without ear-rings or a crown, or a necklace ; none went unperfumed, or without elegant clothing.” — Ramayana, i. § 6. 476 ASSYRIA. and their suitability for the purposes of personal adornment would be readily appreciated. The Hebrews at the time of the Exodus were not only in possession of great numbers of these beautiful and costly productions, but were well acquainted with the arts of cutting, polishing, setting, and engraving them (Exod. xxviii. 9—11 ; 17 — 21 ; xxxv. 27, 36). And Sir Gardner Wilkinson has shown* that the Egyptians, at a period still more remote, were skilled in the lapidary’s art. Many of the most valuable gems, as the sapphire, the ame- thyst, and the beryl, are found in the highest perfec- tion in the countries surrounding Assyria ; and pearls of the first water have from the earliest times been obtained from the Persian Gulf ;f while the commerce of farthest India and Africa that flowed through the mighty mart of Babylon could not leave Nineveh unsupplied with the finest examples of the diamond, and the emerald, the topaz, and the carbuncle. Temen-bar records his conquest of Baby- lonia in the ninth year of his reign, when, in the city of Shinar, he received the tribute of the kings of the Chaldees, gold, silver, gems and pearls, “ All precious stones” are mentioned (Ezek. xxvii. 22,) among the articles which Arabian merchants brought to the fairs of the princely Tyre, herself a tribu- tary of the Assyrian monarch ; and the universal testimony to Phoenician skill in jewellery we have already alluded to. Precious stones were largely used by the early * Manners of the Anc. Egyptians, iii. 106. f “A necklace of twenty seven pearls.” — Ramayana, i. § 14. COSTUME. 477 Persians. Every king, from Feridoon downward, added jewels to the famous apron-standard.* The Immortals in the army of Darius, wore gold chains, robes embroidered with gold, and sleeved tunics adorned with gems. The yoke of the royal chariot glittered with precious stones. The scabbard of the king’s scymitar was of gems, so compacted that they appeared as one.f What were the materials of the diverse garments that formed the royal and princely wardrobes of Assyria, and by what means the beautiful devices and patterns that we see upon them were produced, are questions highly interesting in themselves, but we fear incapable of a satisfactory solution. Linen, in all probability, as in Egypt, where it was manu- factured of surpassing fineness, was employed for the under garments ; on which the elegant but regular patterns that formed the borders, were perhaps dyed,J or painted with the pencil.§ The calicoes * The immense accumulation of these brilliant baubles in the East through the course of ages, may be illustrated by the following facts : — Nadir Shah is said to have carried away from Delhi, — the plunder of the emperor and the omrahs, — jeAvels to the value of 31,000,000/., besides utensils, and handles of weapons, set with jewels, the celebrated peacock- throne, and nine other thrones set with the most precious gems, valued at 11,000,000/. more ; or jewellery amounting to 42,000,000/. sterling. Fraser’s Nadir Shah. + Quint. Curt. iii. 3. $ Fabrics of linen in Egypt, and of cotton in India, were dyed in pat- terns in the most ancient times. Pliny describes the action of imbuing the stuff with colourless mordants , having the power of producing different tints from the same solution (Nat. Hist. xxxv. § 2). In India not only have mordants been used from immemorial periods, but resist-pastes also, which stop out or prevent the action of the dye-bath in the spots and figures to which they have been previously applied. § “In the Societe Industrielle of Miihlhausen, a town of great celebrity 478 ASSYRIA. of India, however, were probably known in the Assyrian and Babylonian markets. There can scarcely be a doubt that silk, the most beautiful of all the subjects of the loom, was known and employed by the early Assyrians. Not that it was produced in their country: it had not been introduced as a native production even into India, at the time of the Periplus of the Erythrean sea,* for the author of that voyage speaks of it as imported from countries farther east. But it was brought by the overland route from China into Western Asia. The Median robes, already alluded to as so celebrated by the Greek writers for their brilliancy and beauty were probably made of silk ; for Pro- copius, writing long afterwards, when the silk- worm had become known in Europe says, “ The robes which the Greeks used to call Median , we now call silken .” Pliny expressly states that the silken gar- ments which were brought into Greece, and which were unravelled by the women to be rewoven in in calico-printing, may be seen specimens, not only of modem Indian calicoes in the preparation state, topically [or, in parts] covered with wax, to serve as a resist to the indigo dye, but of ancient styles of 'pencilled cloths , which had been the work of princesses, covered with figures of such complexity as could not be made without a very tedious and costly edu- cation, beyond the reach of ordinary artisans. Among other curiosities, the counterpane of a state-bed is shown, six yards long and three broad, which must have taken a life-time to execute, on their plan of applying the melted wax with a pencil.” — Penn. Cycl. vi. 150. * It was, however, well known in India at a period far more remote ; for in the Statutes of Menu, (v. 120 ; xii. 64) we read of “silk and woollen stuffs,” and of “ silken clothes : ” — and “ woollen cloth, deer- skins, jewels, soft silks , variously coloured garments, and beautiful orna- ments,” are enumerated as presents in the Ramayana i. § 61. COSTUME. 479 other forms, — were brought from Assyria.* And Ezekiel, who prophesied in captivity by the banks of an Assyrian river, makes mention of silk ( meshi in a passage (xvi. 10) the only one in which the word occurs in the Scriptures, in which he describes how Jehovah had lavished his richest gifts and blessings upon ungrateful Israel. The costliness, arising from the rarity, of what is now so common among us, might well cause it to be appropriated for royal adornment. Even in the later times of Roman luxury and prodigality, it is said to have sold for its own weight in gold, and the emperor Aurelian re- fused his wife a silken dress, on the ground that he could not afford to buy it. The outer garments, at least the long-skirted mantle, and others that were trimmed with fur, we may suppose to have been of woollen cloth. Sheep were reared from the earliest times in the east, and their wool was, perhaps almost from the first, spun and woven into cloth. Woollen manu- factures are recognised in the Sacred Scriptures as early as the Exodus (Lev. xiii. 47, et seq. ; xix. 19); and the employment of goats’ hair in textile fabrics is mentioned (Exod. xxxv. 26) about the same time. The particular breed of goats possessed by Israel in the desert we have no means of ascertain- ing ; but we know that in the regions surrounding Assyria, such as Asia Minor (Angora), the vale of Cashmere, and the mountains of Bokhara and Tibet, * We have already alluded to objects bearing a resemblance to hanks of silk, in the spoil of a city plundered by the Assyrians of the Upper Dynasty. 480 ASSYRIA. goats have been bred from remote antiquity, whose wool, of the most exquisite fineness, has been woven into fabrics of great beauty and of high price. * It is not improbable that the beautiful shawl-like mantles worn by Shalmaneser and Sennacherib were almost identically the same in texture as those fabrics which, under the name of Cashmere shawls, are among the most costly articles of modern cos- tum e.f * The shawl-goat is spread over Tibet and the region to the east of the Caspian Sea. It is covered with silky hair, long, fine, flat and falling, with an under-coat in winter of delicate greyish wool, which latter con- stitutes the fabric of the shawls. The average weight of wool produced by a single goat is about three ounces, and it sells in Tibet for five shillings per pound ; ten goats furnish only wool enough for a shawl a yard and a half square. The wool is sent from the mountains to Cashmere, where it pays duty. It is there bleached with rice-flour, spun into thread, and taken to the bazaar, where another tax is paid on it ; the thread is then dyed, and the shawl is woven, after which the border is sewed on ; the weaver then takes it to the custom-house, where a duty is charged on it at the caprice of the collector, whose avarice is limited only by the fear of ruining the weaver, and so destroying the trade, and his own future profit. All the shawls intended for Europe are packed up and sent to Peshawar across the Indus ; this part of the journey is generally performed on men’s backs, for the road is in many places impassable even for mules, lying across deep precipices, traversed by swinging bridges of ropes, and perpendicular rocks, which are climbed by wooden ladders. At each station of this toilsome journey, which lasts twenty days, a tax is paid, amounting to about 21. sterling for the whole journey. From thence to the confines of Europe, not only must many more custom-house dues be paid, but the merchandise is exposed to the depredations of marauding tribes that infest the whole of these regions, and whose forbearance must be purchased at a heavy price. — Martin. t This supposition is rendered almost certain by what Ctesias says of the beautiful robes imported from northern India into Persia, of such splendid colours and brilliancy, that they were worn by the great king (Ind. § xxi.). His description of the region renders it clear that Cashmere is meant. COSTUME. 481 The magnificent robe, in which the Nimroud monarch is represented as arrayed while receiving the sacred cup from the priests, was probably of the finest linen, for on no material less delicate could those elaborate symbolical figures and mythological scenes have been portrayed with such minute CASHMERE GOAT. correctness and beauty.* These were probably drawn with the pencil (see note on p. 478); but doubtless the chief part of the ornamentation of textile fabrics, when on the one hand extreme delicacy was not required in the delineations, and when on the other the pattern was not the repetition * Sir Gardner Wilkinson mentions a specimen of ancient Egyptian linen, which displays the astonishing number of 540 threads (270 double threads) to the inch, in the warp, and 110 in the woof. The extreme Y 482 ASSYRIA. of a symmetrical form, — was performed with the needle.* Numerous allusions occur in the early Scriptures to embroidery of needle-work. The curtains of the Tabernacle, the hanging that formed the door, and the veil that hid the Holy of Holies, were of fine linen, embroidered with cherubim and other figures in blue, and purple, and scarlet; (Exod. xxvi. 1, 31, 36; xxvii. 16; &c.) which, it appears, (xxxv. 25) was the work of the women. The ephod of the High Priest, the robe of the ephod, the girdle of needle- work, and the broidered coat (Ibid, xxxix) were all of the same character, fine linen, embroidered with the same brilliant colours. The estimation in which embroidered garments were held appears too from the words of the mother of Sisera and her “ wise ladies.” The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming ? why tarry the wheels of his chariots ? Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself, Have they not sped ? have they not divided the prey ; to every fineness of this fabric will be understood by comparing it with our cam- bric, which has about 160 threads to the inch in the warp, and 140 in the woof. This product of the Egyptian loom “ is covered with small figures and hieroglyphics, so finely drawn that here and there the lines are with difficulty followed by the eye ; and as there is no appearance of the ink having run in any part of the cloth, it is evident they had pre- viously prepared it for this purpose.” (Mann, of Anc. Egyptians, iii. 126.) Some of the muslins of India, especially those from the looms of Dacca, are also of surprising tenuity and lightness. These, we need hardly say, are cotton fabrics. * Darius “ wore a purple tunic, with the central part white [or set with white studs]. Over this was a mantle embroidered with gold , and adorned with golden hawks, fighting beak to beak.” Q. Curt. iii. 3. COSTUME. 483 man a damsel or two ? to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needle- work, of divers colours of needle- work on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil ? Judg. v. 28 — 30. And the sumptuousness of such apparel is shown by its association with wrought gold in the adorn- ment of tc the king’s daughter,” in the beautiful allegory of the Psalmist. The king’s daughter is all glorious within ; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle- work. Ps. xlv. 13, 14. “ Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt,” is mentioned by the prophet (Ezek. xxvii. 7) as con- tributing to the princely sumptuousness of Tyre ; and Herodotus (ii. 47) has celebrated the linen corslet presented by Amasis the Egyptian king to the Lacedaemonians, which was ornamented with numerous figures of animals richly embroidered with cotton (doubtless dyed) and gold. We may add that throughout the East the leisure hours of ladies in the harem are almost wholly occu- pied in embroidery ; handkerchiefs, veils, robes, are magnificently adorned by them with the needle in gold and silver thread, and coloured silks ; woollen cloths and velvets also are richly embroidered. To illustrate or at least to enliven this branch of our subject, we will subjoin some extracts from the numerous descriptions that have been given of probably the most gorgeous apparel ever worn on earth, that of the Shah of Persia. An inheritor of the glories of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, the monarchy of Iran has descended, with some vicis- situdes certainly, to our own time ; and perhaps it is 484 ASSYRIA. not too extravagant to suppose that some of the component jewels and ornaments of its regalia may have once been in the possession of those earlier courts. But the protracted existence of the Persian monarchy has enabled it to accumulate “ the peculiar treasure of kings” from various sources, until the court with its paraphernalia literally blazes with jewels. Of these, some of the most splendid were added by Nadir Shah, when he spoiled the Mogul Empire of India. Sir Robert Ker Porter thus describes the appear- ance of the Shah : — “ He was one blaze of jewels, which literally dazzled the sight on first looking at him ; but the details of his dress were these : — A lofty tiara of three elevations was on his head, which shape ap- pears to have been long peculiar to the crown of the great king. It was entirely composed of thickly set diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, so exquisitely disposed as to form a mixture of the most beautiful colours in the brilliant light reflected from its sur- face. Several black feathers, like the heron-plume, were intermixed with the resplendent aigrettes of this truly imperial diadem, whose bending points were finished with pear-formed pearls of an immense size. The vesture was of gold tissue, nearly covered with a similar disposition of jewellery; and crossing the shoulders were two strings of pearls, probably the largest in the world. I call his dress a vesture, because it sat close to his person, from the neck to the bottom of the waist, showing a shape as noble as his air. At that point, it devolved downwards in COSTUME. 485 loose drapery, like the usual Persian garment, and was of the same costly materials with the vest. But for splendour, nothing could exceed the broad brace- lets round his arms, and the belt which encircled his waist ; they actually blazed like fire, when the rays of the sun met them. “ The throne was of pure white marble, raised a few steps from the ground, and carpeted with shawls and cloth of gold, on which the king sat in the fashion of his country, his back supported by a large cushion, encased in a network of pearls.”* Sir Harford Jones Brydges, after speaking with ad- miration of the crowTn and armlets, thus continues : — * “ Among the others, I was particularly struck with what I know not how to give the reader an idea of but by calling it the king’s tippet, as it is a covering for part of his back, his shoulders, and his arms, which is only used on the very highest occasions. It is a piece of pearl-work, of the most beautiful pattern ; the pearls are worked on velvet, but they stand so close together that little, if any, of the velvet is visible. It took me an hour to examine this single article, which I have no fear in saying cannot be matched in the world. The tassel, which, on such occasions, is appended to the state dagger, is formed of pearls of the most uncommon size and beauty ; and the emerald, which forms the top of the tassel, is, perhaps, the largest perfect one in the world.”f On Sir John Malcolm the effect was not less striking. On his presentation, he observes : — * Travels, i. 325. t Mission to Persia, 383. 486 ASSYRIA. “Many of the princes and nobles were magni- ficently dressed, but all was forgotten as soon as the eye rested on the king. He. appeared to be above the middle size, his age little more than thirty, his complexion rather fair; his features were regular and fine, with an expression denoting quickness and SHAH OF PERSIA. {In his state costume.) intelligence. His beard attracted much of our at- tention ; it was full, black, and glossy, and flowed to his middle. His dress baffled all description. The COSTUME. 487 ground of his robes was white; but he was so covered with jewels of an extraordinary size, and their splendour, from his being seated where the rays of the sun played upon them, was so dazzling, that it was impossible to distinguish the minute parts which combined to give such amazing brilliancy to his whole figure.’1* Finally, Sir William Ousely thus describes the “ royal apparel” of Futteh Ali Shah. “ Of the king’s dress, I could perceive that the colour was scarlet, but to ascertain exactly the materials would have been difficult, from the pro- fusion of large pearls that covered it in various places, and the multiplicity of jewels that sparkled all around ; for the golden throne seemed studded at the sides with precious stones of every possible tint, and the back resembled a sun of glory, of which the radiation was imitated by diamonds, garnets, emeralds, and rubies. Of such, also, was chiefly composed the monarch’s ample and most splendid crowm, and the two figures of birds that ornamented the throne, one perched on each of its beautifully enamelled shoulders.”'f * Sketches of Persia, p. 210. t Travels, iii. 131. 488 ASSYRIA. DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand ; and also much cattle. Jonah iv. 11. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly ; that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me. Zeph. ii. 15. The knowledge which we yet possess of the social life and private manners of the Assyrian citizens is extremely small, being almost confined to deduc- tions indirectly inferred from the practice of the court, from the customs and appearance of the soldiery, and from the various productions of art or results of science which are incidentally portrayed. The buried cities of the Tigris have as yet revealed no sepulchres lined with vivid and graphic paintings of the processes of trade and manufacture, of indoor and outdoor homely life, like those exhaustless depositories at Beni Hassan and Thebes, from whence such a flood of light has been poured on the manners of the Ancient Egyptians. It is not im- possible that similar memorials may be brought to light in the mounds of Assyria ; yet hardly pro- bable ; for the results of the investigations already made seem to indicate that no portion of those ancient cities has survived their long entombment, DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 489 except the royal palaces, the embellishments of which would probably be restricted to scenes (like those already exhumed) in which the monarch bore a personal share. The burnt masses of Babylon may indeed conceal and preserve monuments, (destined to reward the pains of some future investigator), which illustrate the habits and manners of the common people ; for that ancient city was, as we believe, for centuries a subject of the Assyrian king before it became itself a royal residence*- Its glory was the commercial and manufacturing wealth of its busy population ; and who can tell what records of its inhabitants may exist shut up in that vitrified mountain of brick ? The oldest notice of Nineveh extant, after the slight mention of its early origin, is in the Book of the Prophet Jonah. It is there described as “ that great city,” an emphatic appellation curiously agree- ing with the N lvo$ psyuXri of a poetic fragment pre- served by Diodorus Siculus.* The latter authority gives 480 stadia as its circumference, j and Strabo intimates that it was considerably larger than Baby- lon. J Jonah’s allusion to its dimensions agrees well with the statement of Diodorus. He calls it “ an exceeding great city of three days’ journey” (iii. 3). A day’s journey in the East is understood to be twenty miles, and if the expression be meant to de- scribe the periphery, it would give just 60 miles, or the 480 stadia of the Greek historian. We have already mentioned the interesting fact, that the great * Diod. ii. 23. t Ibid. ii. 3. J Geogr. xvi. y 5 490 ASSYRIA. palace-mounds which have been partially explored, inclose a rhomboidal area, the circumference of which is exactly 60 miles. It is not to be supposed that this vast area was covered with buildings, like our modern European capitals. Like all great Asiatic cities, it was doubt- less built in a loose and straggling manner, with many large fields for the production of corn and for the grazing of cattle, interspersed among the streets. We are told by Quintus Curtius that Babylon, even in the time of Alexander, was not continuously built over, but that within the precincts of the city there was a vast space which was cultivated and sown, in order to provide food for the inhabitants in case of a blockade. The open fields, in fact, covered nearly as large a space of ground as the buildings.* * In the Ramhyana we have, in some detail, the poet’s idea of a perfect citjr, formed doubtless on those, with which he was familiar in Hindostan several centuries B.C. (i The famous city Uyodhya was 12 yojunas (96‘ miles) in extent ; the houses stood in triple long extended rows. It was rich, and perpetually adorned with new improvements ; the streets and alleys were admirably disposed, and the principal streets were well- watered. It was filled with merchants of various descriptions, and adorned with abundance of jewels ; difficult of access, filled with spacious houses, beautified with gardens and groves of mango-trees, surrounded by a deep and impassable moat, and completely furnished with arms ; was ornamented with stately gates and porticoes, and constantly guarded by archers . . . fortified by gates firmly barred, adorned with areas disposed in regular order . . . Prosperous, of unequalled splendour, it was con- stantly crowded with charioteers and messengers, furnished with martial engines, adorned with banners, and high-arched porticoes, constantly filled with dancing girls, and dancing men, crowded with elephants, horses, and chariots, with merchants and ambassadors from various countries, frequented by the chariots of the gods, and adorned with the greatest magnificence. It was . . beautified with temples, . . adorned DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 491 Sir A. Burnes says of Balkh, one of the most ancient cities on the globe that t( in its wide area it appears to have inclosed innumerable gardens, which increased its size without adding to its population.” In the inspired narrative of Hezekiah’s reforma- tion, the people “ that dwelt in the cities of Judah ” are described as bringing in the tithe of cattle and sheep , in contrast with their brethren who brought “ all the increase of the field ” (2 Chron. xxxi. 5, 6). This is a remarkable distinction, and appears to show that it was not unusual to keep cattle within walls. The “ much cattle,” that were sufficiently impor- tant in the eyes of Jehovah to be mentioned by Him as a ground for showing mercy to Nineveh (J on. iv. 11), intimate the same thing of the Assyrian capital; as does also the including of “ herd and flock ” in the proclamation of the penitent monarch (iii. 7).'* But when these allowances are made, it is indu- bitable that an immense area was occupied by the dwellings of the inhabitants. And surely it was a mighty and a populous city, as well as a great one. The declaration of Jehovah himself, who does not exaggerate, assigns to Nineveh “ more than six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left hand” (Jon. iv. 11). By this expression young children, too young to be with gardens, and baths, and spacious buildings, and full of inhabitants. . . The houses formed one continued row of equal height, resounding with the delightful music of the tabor, the flute, and the harp.” — Ramayana, i. § 5. * The driving away of the herds and flocks, after the capture of a fortified city, is constantly depicted in the sculptures, and proves that the custom was a general one of keeping cattle within the walls. 49 2 ASSYRIA. involved in the guilt of the city, were intended ; and if we reckon these at one eighth part of the whole, the result will give a total population of nearly one million, or about half that of London with its suburbs. It has been observed* that the exactness of this enumeration, which was probably the statement of a well-known fact, argues that the people were in an advanced state of civilization, seeing that their social statistics were well attended to and carefully pre- served. We may receive this conclusion with the more readiness, because it is abundantly confirmed by the direct evidence of the Assyrians themselves, as shown upon their sculptured monuments. The only light we possess about the dwellings of the Assyrian people is derived from the representa- tions already mentioned of their intrenched camps. As the camp was a sort of temporary city, we may presume that the form of its erections, their arrange- ment, and general economy, would bear considerable analogy (after making the allowances required by the differing circumstances) to those of towns. We see then in these enceintes , a large house of pecu- liar form, isolated in a particular quarter, and appro- priated to the king ; other houses of similar shape but smaller in size, doubtless the residences of the chief captains ; and finally conical tents, or huts, the dwellings of the common soldiers and attendants. The form of the houses, we have said, is peculiar, and will be better understood by the accompanying engraving than by any words of description. They ap- * By Dr. Kitto in Cycl. Bibl. Lit. ii. 422. DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 493 pear to have been built, like the houses of the East at the present day, around a court, the apartments per- haps forming one side, or more, of the court, according to the rank of the owner. The sides not formed by rooms would consist, as they do now, of thick walls of brick, burnt or sun-dried, or else of mud, like the cob-walls of Devonshire and Dorset. A single door gave admission into the court, but no windows ap- pear in the exterior of the edifice, they being all situated in the interior looking into the court. The apartments, at two opposite sides, generally rose to an elevation considerably greater than that of the wall ; and those of one side were always much higher than those of the other. In some cases, the lower edifice of the two did not rise higher than the wall. The corners of the edifice were rounded off on those sides that looked into the street, but square facing the court ; a curious construction that seems to preclude the possibility of flat roofs. We cannot explain the rounded form, but this elevated portion appears to answer to the tabsar , or upper gallery, 494 ASSYRIA. described in a previous part of this work (See pp. 177, 185, ante). The front looking down upon the court was probably open, supported by pillars, and furnished with curtains. There is, in the British Museum, a model of an ancient Egyptian house of rather humble pretensions, the outline of which would bear some resemblance to those of the Assyrian sculptures ; but we do not think it throws much light on their structure. MODEL OF AN EGYPTIAN HOUSE. It has been supposed, on the hypothesis that alphabetic characters were all originally hierogly- phics, that the Hebrew letter Beth (1) was intended to represent a house. The forms of some of these Assyrian dwellings bear a closer similarity to the DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 495 character, in its modern appearance, than any we have seen. In general no appearance of decoration is seen on the outer side of these houses ; a simple door with a square lintel above breaks the uniformity ; but in one of the Kouyunjik era, a narrow ledge ran along the wall, near its top ; and in another at Khorsabad, the whole surface, to the height of the wall, was adorned with a regular pattern of squares within squares. Both of these were royal dwellings. The latter ap- pearance is sometimes given to the exterior of the military engines ; perhaps it indicates painted wood. Mr. Layard thinks that the upper story was some- times formed of a kind of canvas.* Probably the houses in cities were built with a greater regard to the value of the ground on which they stood, than in a camp, and were carried up to a greater elevation : we have no direct evidence that such was the case ; but Egyptian town-houses were narrow and lofty ; and Herodotus informs us that Babylon was “ full of houses three and four stories high.”'j~ The dwellings of the lower orders were doubtless low and inconvenient huts, without any pretensions to beauty, and of little durability. Unburnt bricks, clay, or even wattled twigs forming a kind of hurdles, plastered with a mixture of mud and chopped straw, were in all probability the perishable materials of which they were generally composed. In the great city Sardis, most of the houses were built of no more permanent materials than reeds, * Nineveh and its Remains, ii. 271. t Herod, i. 180. 496 ASSYRIA. even down to the time of its capture and conflagra- tion by the Ionians (b.c. 500) ; and such as were built of bricks had roofs of reeds.* It has been thought that many of the habitations of the towns were tents, properly so called ; a sup- position grounded on the representations of these structures in what were considered walled cities, but which we have elsewhere shown to be camps. We do not think that the inhabitants of the Assyrian cities were, at least to any considerable extent, of that nomadic character, which would make tents proper to them. The representations, however, are valuable, as revealing the form and structure of military tents, and perhaps also of such as were used by shepherds and other rustics. Jonah “made him a booth” on the east side of Nineveh, to watch under its shelter the result of his predictions (Jon. iv. 5). And when we remember how emphatically the Patriarchs were “dwellers in tents” (Heb. xi. 9), and how frequent are the notices of such transi- tory habitations in the Scriptures, we shall not think these illustrations uninteresting. We have already described their common con- struction (see p. 637, ante) and shall merely add, that a specimen of an early era is of a form apparently larger and more commo- dious than those of later times.f It was supported by two upright poles, set at some distance apart, t Layard,.pl. 63. * Herod, v. 101. DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 497 over which the covering was stretched, and pinned to the earth by pegs. We infer from several pas- sages in Holy Writ, as well as from Oriental usage at the present day, that the covering was of a coarse kind of cloth, woven of goats’ hair. It may, how- ever, have been of felt, a material largely used for the purpose from time immemorial by the nomads of Central Asia. The chief interest of these representations of tents consists in the light which they shed upon the details of indoor life among the Assyrian people. Meagre, indeed, is the information we thus gain, but it is all we possess, of the kind. The furniture depicted exhibits considerable variety of form, more than we might be prepared to expect in the “ tented field.” Some was massive, some light and elegant. Of the former was the dining-table, TABLES. the same in form as that already described in the muster of the royal furniture (seep. 164, ante), with or without the central pillar. Other specimens more nearly resembled our own four-legged tables. Of the more elegant forms, the favourite style was 498 ASSYRIA. similar to our camp-stools, the supports crossing upon a pivot, and intended to fold up. The feet of these tables were generally carved into the form of gazelles’ hoofs. Stools were constantly used for sitting, chairs being never represented in the bas-reliefs, except as the seats of kings or gods. The common soldiers, not on active duty, are seen within their tents, seated on low blocks of wood, or on footstools, or hassocks, knee to knee, chatting familiarly, or engaged in do- mestic occupations. But stools of higher pretension were numerous. Some were heavy, of the same shape as a four-legged table ; others were of the crossed. or figure-X, form, either made to fold, or not ; in the latter case a bar went across from foot to foot. A cushion was frequently laid upon these seats. Stools answering to the diphros of the Greeks were used at table, two persons sitting upon each, side by side. The style of this article seems to have been always the same, perhaps varying in the amount of its de- coration. We have already described it among the DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 499 royal furniture at Khorsabad : the seat on which the king himself sat in the early ages, when receiving the sacred cup, seems not to have differed except in being hollowed in the seat, and more ornamented. Among the Greeks the diphros was commonly ap- propriated to persons of the meanest rank.* With the Egyptians and Assyrians it was otherwise. The former people generally re- served it for the conjoint occupation of the master and mistress of the house, when they received visi- tors ; sometimes, however, it was offered to their guests, a gentleman and a lady, probably a married pair, sitting together, f The Assyrians certainly used it as a seat of state and of honour. The Egyptian monuments afford many parallels to the forms of Assyrian furniture. The variety in the former is indeed far greater, as was to be expected, from the plenitude of materials for comparison ; and many articles, of which representations, if not actual specimens, have come down to us, were common in Thebes and Memphis, of which Nineveh has as yet afforded us no memorial. The elegance of Egyptian * Fosbroke’s Arts of the Greeks and Romans, i. 171. This, however, was not always the rule, for Homer assigns such a double seat to Paris and Helen. II. iii. 424. t Wilkinson, ii. 191. 500 ASSYRIA. workmanship, however, in cabinet furniture, which has been so deservedly admired, was in no respect superior to that which issued from the workshops of Assyria. Among the fashions which prevailed in both countries were, the carving of the feet of tables, chairs, and couches into imitations of the feet of lions and antelopes, the setting of these upon re- versed cones, and the use of the camp-stool. Couches of elegant form, closely resembling those used in our drawing-rooms, formed part of the furni- ture of tents, and therefore may be fairly supposed to have been common, — at least in the later age. They were probably used also by surrounding nations, for one of similar form is seen carried off among the spoil of a sacked city, in one of the Nimroud marbles. We have no doubt that these couches were used as beds by night, as well as for the siesta at noon. Modern oriental usages, which have thrown so much light on the allusions of the early Scriptures, have rather deceived than assisted commentators in some particulars. We strongly suspect that the ancient DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 501 Orientals much more nearly agreed with the people of Western Europe, in the customs of sitting and reposing, than with their successors in the East. Chairs, stools, couches, and bedsteads, took the place of divans, carpets, and pillows ; they sat as we do, with the legs perpendicular, not cross-legged, or squatted upon their heels. The interesting re- searches of Sir Gardner Wilkinson have abundantly shown that such was the custom among the Egyp- tiansj^the alabasters of Nineveh and the cylinders of Babylon prove that the people of the Euphrates and Tigris knew no other ; and many expressions in the sacred Scriptures indicate that the Canaanites and Hebrews used beds and bedsteads analogous to ours. Such are the following, among several others. For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants ; be- hold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Deut. iii. 11. Thou sh^lt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. 2 Kings i. 4, 6, 1 6. Surely I will not come into the tabernable of my house, nor go up into my bed. Ps. cxxxii. 3. In the houses of the great and luxurious, doubt- less, the couches, whose elegant forms we see, were adorned with the beauties of carving in polished woods and ivory, with gold and silver, and even with precious stones. The prophet Amos, in a passage which we shall presently find illustrative in other particulars than this, describes in the following terms the luxury of Judah and Samaria in the days of their degeneracy. * The lower orders, however, crouched on their heels in Ancient Egypt. 502 ASSYRIA. That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall ; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves in- struments of music, like David ; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments ; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Amos vi. 4 — 6. The “ beds of gold and silver ” in the palace of Ahasuerus (Esth. i. 6) were doubtless couches, as they were used in the banquet. Croesus the Lydian had beds embossed with the same precious metals,* and according to Plutarchf the Greeks used similar decoration. Herodotus also casually shows that both high beds and chairs were common in Lydian bed- rooms, when he represents^ the wife of Candaules as undressing, laying her clothes on a chair near the door, and then stepping from the chair into bed ; a description entirely foreign in this day to Eastern, while closely similar to Western manners. That pillared and canopied beds were used by the Assyrians, we have already seen from the example of Holofernes,§ as also that the tapestry was magni- ficently adorned among the wealthy. Among the* Hebrews they seem to have been not unknown, in the luxurious days of Solomon. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Prov. vii. 16, 17. It is not improbable that hangings of gauze were employed to keep off the venomous insects that are * Herod, i. 50. t De Superst. J Herod, i. 9. $ Judith x. 21 (see p. 338 , ante). DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 503 so common in warm countries, identical in structure and use with the musquito-curtains of India. Ac- cording to Herodotus,* the Egyptians used musquito nets ; but he appears to have mistakenly fancied that it was the kind of net employed in fishing. The Greek xcovoottsIov, from which our word canopy is de- rived, was no doubt a tent-bed with gauze curtains, and probably had its origin from the East ; the name is formed from xwvooty, a gnat or musquito. No trace exists in the Assyrian monuments that the luxurious fashion of reclining at meals prevailed, or was even known. It was practised among the Jews at the time of our Lord (Luke vii. 38, John xiii. 23), and also among the Homans ; but it is not likely that it originated with either. It was known to the Greeks about the middle of the sixth century b.c., for it is mentioned by Diodorus in his account of the feast of Clisthenes. Athenaeus tells us on the authority of Hegesander, that among the Mace- donians it was a privilege reserved for those who had killed a boar without nets, j On the sculptures of ancient Lycia, discovered by Sir C. Fellowes, gods and heroes are represented as reclining ; and to these monuments a much higher antiquity must be as- signed than the sixtli century. J The mention of the beds at Ahasuerus’ feast (Esth. i. 6), as well as that on which queen Esther reclined at the banquet of wine, and on which Haman fell (vii. 8) proves that it existed among the Persians ; which is confirmed also by Xenophon, who describes Cyrus as inviting * Herod, ii. 95. t Discov. in Lycia, 116, 118. £ Athen. lib. i. c. 1 4. 504 ASSYRTA. Gobryas to sup with him, and making him “ lie down on a mattress.”* The Romans are reported to have adopted the custom from their Carthaginian rivals, f who were probably indebted for it to their Asiatic parentage : yet this is strange, since they had everywhere around them, in the tombs of the Etrus- cans, paintings which abundantly show that the custom was common to that ancient and luxurious people, and had been adopted by them probably long before the foundation of Rome. It is curious, however, that the Etruscans, like the Carthaginians, to whom tradition ascribed the origin of the custom, were a Phoenician people. The ancient Egyptians sat at meals as we do ; and so, as we have already observed, did the Assyrians. The palace of king Shalmaneser had two halls adorned with the representations of banquets,. The sculptured slabs were disposed in these saloons in two series, of which those which displayed the festive scenes formed the upper. In the small room these extended quite round the four walls, a square of 21 feet 6 inches ; in the larger, one of the finest halls in the whole edifice, measuring 116 feet 6 inches, by 29 feet 8 inches, they extended over two sides, or half way round, as well as into some of the passages. The two scenes thus would have made a piece of sculpture, if united in one, of more than 230 feet in length, which might have afforded ample opportunity for revealing to us all the minutiae of an Assyrian feast. As it is, however, we acquire scarcely more than a few general ideas, for the * Cyrop. ii. 20 (Ashley). Val. Max. xii. 1, 2. DOMESTIC AND PRIVATE LIFE. 505 numerous tables with guests and attendants, are al- most exact counterparts of each other. It is pretty certain that this was a royal banquet ; that is, one given by the king to his captains and officers, and there is some reason to believe that, like Belshazzar,* he personally shared in their festivity ; for one table is represented, at which, contrary to the rule of all the others, a single individual is seated, fanned by an eunuch in the usual manner of royal etiquette : he wears no mitre, however, but is bare- headed, like the guests. f Men and eunuchs were associated at the feast, just as they were at court and in battle. They sat on $l