the sculptures see nets used for
fishing; but perhaps we ought not to conclude from this that they were
never so employed in Assyria. The Assyrian sculptors represented only
occasionally the scenes of common everyday life; and we are seldom
justified in drawing a negative conclusion as to the peaceful habits of
the people on any point from the mere fact that the bas-reliefs contain
no positive evidence on the subject.

A few other animals were probably, but not certainly, chased by the
Assyrians, as especially the ostrich and the bear. The gigantic bird,
which remained in Mesopotamia as late as the time of Xenophon, was well
known to the Assyrian artists, who could scarcely have represented it
with so much success, unless its habits had been described by hunters.
The bear is much less frequent upon the remains than the ostrich; but
its occurrence and the truthfulness of its delineation where it occurs,
indicate a familiarity which may no doubt be due to other causes, but is
probably traceable to the intimate knowledge acquired by those who
hunted it. [PLATE CXXVI., Fig. 2.]

Of the other amusements and occupations of the Assyrians our knowledge
is comparatively scanty; but some pages may be here devoted to their
music, their navigation, their commerce, and their agriculture. On the
first and second of these a good deal of light is thrown by the
monuments, while some interesting facts with respect to the third and
fourth may be gathered both from this source and also from ancient
writers.

That the Babylonians, the neighbors of the Assyrians, and, in a certain
sense, the inheritors of their empire, had a passion for music, and
delighted in a great variety of musical instruments, has long been known
and admitted. The repeated mention by Daniel, in his third chapter, of
the cornet, flute, harp sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of
music--or, at any rate, of a number of instruments for which those terms
were once thought the best English equivalents--has familiarized us with
the fact that in Babylonia, as early as the sixth century B.C., musical
instruments of many different kinds were in use. It is also apparent
from the book of Psalms, that a variety of instruments were employed by
the Jews. And we know that in Egypt as many as thirteen or fourteen
different kinds were common. In Assyria, if there was not so much
variety as this, there were at any rate eight or nine quite different
sorts, some stringed, some w