proportions, form a third kind of cement, superior to the slime or mud,
but inferior to lime-mortar. Petroleum, called by the Orientals _mumia_,
is another product of the bitumen-pits.

The wild animals indigenous in Babylonia appear to be chiefly the
following:--the lion, the leopard, the hyeena, the lynx, the wild-cat,
the wolf, the jackal, the wild-boar, the buffalo, the stag, the gazelle,
the jerboa, the fox, the hare, the badger, and the porcupine. The
Mesopotamian lion is a noble animal. Taller and larger than a Mount St.
Bernard dog, he wanders over the plains their undisputed lord, unless
when an European ventures to question his pre-eminence. The Arabs
tremble at his approach, and willingly surrender to him the choicest of
their flocks and herds. Unless urged by hunger, he seldom attacks man,
but contents himself with the destruction of buffaloes, camels, dogs, and
sheep. When taken young, he is easily tamed, and then manifests
considerable attachment to his master. In his wild state he haunts the
marshes and the banks of the various streams and canals, concealing
himself during the day, and at night wandering abroad in search of his
prey, to obtain which he will approach with boldness to the very skirts
of an Arab encampment. His roar is not deep or terrible, but like the
cry of a child in pain, or the first wail of the jackal after sunset,
only louder, clearer and more prolonged. Two varieties of the lion
appear to exist: the one is maneless, while the other has a long mane,
which is black and shaggy. The former is now the more common in the
country; but the latter, which is the fiercer of the two, is the one
ordinarily represented upon the sculptures. The lioness is nearly as
much feared as the lion; when her young are attacked, or when she has
lost them, she is perhaps even more terrible. Her roar is said to be
deeper and far more imposing than of the male.

[Illustration: PLATE 6]

The other animals require but few remarks. Gazelles are plentiful in the
more sandy regions; buffaloes abound in the marshes of the south, where
they are domesticated, and form the chief wealth of the inhabitants;
troops of jackals are common, while the hyaena and wolf are comparatively
rare; the wild-boar frequents the river banks and marshes, as depicted in
the Assyrian sculptures [PLATE VI., Fig. 1]; hares abound in the country
about Baghdad; porcupines and badgers are found in most places--leopards,
lynxes,