imported it from a
distance. It is evident, however, that this scarcity was not allowed to
curtail the royal amusement. To gratify the monarch, hunters sought
remote and savage districts, where the beast was still plentiful, and,
trapping their prey, conveyed it many hundreds of miles to yield a
momentary pleasure to the royal sportsman.

It is instructive to contrast with the boldness shown in the lion-hunts
of this remote period the feelings and conduct of the present
inhabitants of the region. The Arabs, by whom it is in the main
possessed, are a warlike race, accustomed from infancy to arms and
inured to combat. "Their hand is against every man, and every man's hand
is against them." Yet they tremble if a lion is but known to be near,
and can only with the utmost difficulty be persuaded by an European to
take any part in the chase of so dangerous an animal.

The lioness, no less than the lion, appears as a beast of chase upon the
sculptures. It seems that in modern times she is quite as much feared as
her consort. Indeed, when she has laid up cubs, she is even thought to
be actually the more dangerous of the two. [PLATE CXX., Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE 120]

Next to the chase of the lion and lioness, the early Assyrian monarchs
delighted in that of the wild bull. It is not quite certain what exact
species of animal is sought to be expressed by the representations upon
the sculptures; but on the whole it is perhaps most probable that the
Aurochs or European bison (_Bos urus_ of naturalists) is the beast
intended. At any rate it was an animal of such strength and courage
that, according to the Assyrian belief, it ventured to contend with the
lion. [PLATE CXX., Fig. 2.] The Assyrian monarchs chased the wild bull
in their chariots without dogs, but with the assistance of horsemen, who
turned the animals when they fled, and brought them within the monarch's
reach. [PLATE CXX., Fig. 3.] The king then aimed his arrows at them,
and the attendant horsemen, who were provided with bows, seem to have
been permitted to do the same. The bull seldom fell until he had
received a number of wounds; and we sometimes see as many as five arrows
still fixed in the body of one that has succumbed. It would seem that
the bull, when pushed, would, like the lion, make a rush at the king's
chariot, in which case the monarch seized him by one of the horns and
gave him the _coup de grace_ with his sword.

The special zest with which thi