thought to be
frequently inaccurate, as might be expected when there were no
instruments, or none of any great value. Mythology is a very favorite
subject, and appears to be treated most fully; but hitherto cuneiform
scholars have scarcely penetrated below the surface of the mythological
tablets, baffled by the obscurity of the subject and the difficulty of
the dialect (in) which they are written.

[Illustration: PLATE 88]

On one point alone, belonging to the domain of science, do the Assyrian
representations of their life enable us to comprehend, at least to some
extent, their attainments. The degree of knowledge which this people
possessed on the subject of practical mechanics is illustrated with
tolerable fulness in the bas-reliefs, more especially in the important
series discovered at Koyunjik, where the transport of the colossal bulls
from the quarry to the palace gateways is represented in the most
elaborate detail. [PLATE LXXXVIII.] The very fact that they were able to
transport masses of stone, many tons in weight, over a considerable
space of ground, and to place then on the summit of artificial platforms
from thirty to eighty (or ninety) feet high, would alone indicate
considerable mechanical knowledge. The further fact, now made clear from
the bas-reliefs, that they wrought all the elaborate carving of the
colossi before they proceeded to raise them or put them in place, is an
additional argument of their skill, since it shows that they had no fear
of any accident happening in the transport. It appears from the
representations that they placed their colossus in a standing posture,
not on a truck or wagon of any kind, but on a huge wooden sledge, shaped
nearly like a boat, casing it with an openwork of spars or beams, which
crossed each other at right angles, and were made perfectly tight by
means of wedges. To avert the great danger of the mass toppling over
sideways, ropes were attached to the top of the casing, at the point
where the beams crossed one another, and were held taut by two parties
of laborers, one on either side of the statue. Besides these, wooden
forks or props were applied on either side to the second set of
horizontal cross-beams, held also by men whose business it would be to
resist the least inclination of the huge stone to lean to one side more
than to the other. The front of the sledge on which the colossus stood
was curved gently upwards, to facilitate its sliding along the ground,