Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/177

On the Representations of Animals. 149 of Egypt, in whose tombs scenes of agricultural art are of such constant occurrence. We find, however, the wild bull, 1 which the kings of Calah hunted in the neighbouring desert (Fig. 15), and the draught ox, which, after a lucky raid, the terrors of Asia drive before them with their prisoners and other booty (Vol. I. Fig. 30). 2 We may also point to the heifer's head in ivory which acts as tailpiece to the third chapter of our first volume. We sometimes find also sheep and goats of both sexes (Fig. 54) ; 3 but of all the animals that have close relations with man, that which occurs most often on the palace walls is the horse. They did not use him as a beast of burden ; it was the mule that was used for drawing carts (Vol. I. Fig. 31), for carrying women and children and merchandise (Vol. I. Figs. 30 and 115). As with the Arabs of to-day, the horse was reserved for war and hunting. But the Assyrians were not, like the Egyptians, content to harness him to the chariot ; they rode him as well. Their armies com- prised a numerous and well-provided cavalry ; and the Assyrian artist drew the horse a great deal better than his Egyptian confrere. The horses we meet with in the Assyrian sculptures are of a heavier breed than Arabs ; they are generally shorter and more thickly set. Travellers believe the breed to still exist in the horses of Kurdistan, a country which was bordered by ancient Assyria and dependent upon it. 4 The head is small, well-formed, and well-carried (Fig. j$), the shoulders sloping, the neck and limbs well set on, and the muscles strongly marked. We have already had occasion to figure horses at full speed (Vol. I. Fig. 5), standing still (Vol. I. Figs. 67 and 115), and proceeding at a slow pace (Figs. 21 and 31). 5 No observer can avoid being 1 We are tempted to believe that these animals were exterminated before the days of the Sargonids by the unrelenting pursuit to which they were subjected ; they are not to be found in the pictures of Assurbanipal's hunts. On the other hand, in the palace of Assurnazirpal, which dates from two centuries earlier, they were figured with peculiar insistence and in great detail (Layard, Mo?iuments, first series, plates n, 12, 32, 43-44, 46, 48 and 49). 2 Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. p. 351 ; Layard, Monuments, first series, plate 58. Second series, plates 26 and 29. 3 Layard, Monuments, first series, plates 58 and 60. 4 Place, Ninive, vol. ii. p. 233. 5 Among the reliefs in which the Assyrian horse may be best studied, are the slabs from the palace of Sennacherib, in which a string of horses led by grooms are shown (Layard, Monuments, second series, plate 7). They have no trappings or clothing of any kind to hide their form.