dressed in simple garments, and have long beards, resembling the other Semitic races. Their tribute is gold and silver vases. The tomb is of the age of Thothines IV., and either represents an event of that, or of the preceding, reign. (Champ. Monum. tome ii. pl. clx.) Atur is the Egyptian word for 'river;' it suggests that Aturia and Assyria meant the land of the river.' The name of Assuar in the Select Papyri, as a country conquered by the Egyptians (Pl. lvii. 1. 6; Hincks's Attempt, p. 46), is not certainly identified with Assyria.”

CHAP. VI.1

PRIVATE LIFE OF THE ASSYRIANS.

311

CHAPTER VI.

THE monuments hitherto discovered in Assyria, furnish us with few details illustrating the private life and domestic economy of those who raised them. The bas-reliefs are mostly public records of conquests, triumphs, and great religious ceremonies. As they were placed in palaces and temples, they could, of course, but refer to national events; no others being worthy of so conspicuous a position. If any memorial of the private life of an individual were preserved, or if his peculiar profession or trade were indicated, it must have been in his own dwelling or in his tomb, as in Egypt. Hitherto only the public buildings of Assyria have been discovered, and we have consequently only the public records. If the interiors of

ses and the occupations of their inmates, are represented in the bas-reliefs, they are casually introduced, to illustrate or to convey more fully the meaning of the general subject. Thus, within the walls of castles belonging to the Assyrians, or captured by thern, are seen buildings and tents. The inhabitants are slaying sheep, and engaged in domestic occupations, seated and conversing together, feeding their horses, and preparing their couches. But these details are all made subservient to the main action, which is the siege or triumph.*

With such scanty materials at our command, we can

In the Assyrian sculptures attendants are frequently introduced carrying vessels and skins, probably containing provisions. It may be observed that the skins are tied precisely as at this day-the two extremities being fastened by the opposite ends of one string.

scarcely venture to form any conjecture as to the manners and private life of the Assyrians. The subject must be deferred until further discoveries have supplied us with additional information.

From casual notices in the Bible and in ancient history, we learn that the Assyrians, as well as those who succeeded them in the empire of Asia, were fond of public entertainments and festivities, and that they displayed on such occasions the greatest luxury and magnificence. The Assyrian king, called Nabuchodonosor in the book of Judith, on returning from his victorious expedition against Arphaxad, feasted with his whole army for one hundred and twenty days. The same is related by the Greek authors of Sardanapalus, after his great victory over the combined armies of the Medes. The book of Esther describes the splendor of the festivals given by the Babylonian king. The princes and nobles of his vast dominions were feasted for one hundred and eighty days; and for one week all the people of Susa assembled in the gardens of his palace, and were served in vessels of gold. The richest tapestries adorned the halls and tents, and the most costly couches were prepared for the guests.* Wine was served in abundance, and women, including even the wives and concubines of the monarch, were frequently present to add to the magnificence of the scene. According to Quintus Curtius, not only did hired female performers exhibit on these occasions, but the wives and daughters of the nobles, forgetting their modesty, danced before the guests, divesting themselves even of their garments.1 Wine was drunk immoderately. When Babylon was taken by the Persians, the inhabitants were celebrating one of their great festivals, and even the guards were intoxicated. The Babylonian king, ignorant of the approaching fate of his capi

Esther, i.; Daniel, v.

That it was subsequently he custom of the Persians to ntroduce their wives and concubines at their public banquets, is shown by the anecdote of Amyntas and the Persian ambassadors, related by fierodotus. (Lib. v. c. 18.)

Xenophon, Cyrop. vii. 5.; Herod. I. i. c. 191.

tal, and surrounded by one thousand of his princes and nobles, and by his wives and concubines, drank out of the golden vessels that had been carried away from the Jewish temple.* On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad was a bas-relief representing a public feast, probably in celebration of a victory. Men were seen seated on high chairs with drinking-cups in their hands; whilst attendants were bringing in bowls, goblets, and various fruits and viands, for the banquet. At Nimroud part of a similar bas-relief was discovered.

Music was not wanting on these occasions. It is probable that the Assyrians, like the Egyptians, had various musical instruments; only one kind, however, is represented in the sculptures. It is in the shape of a triangle, is held between the left arm and the side, and appears to have been suspended from the neck. The strings, nine or ten in number, are stretched between a flat board and an upright bar through which they pass. Tassels are appended to the ends of the strings, and the bar itself is generally surmounted by a small hand, probably of metal or ivory. The instrument was struck with a plectrum held in the right hand: the left appears to have been used either to pull the strings, or to produce notes by pressure. Like the Egyptian harp, it had no cross-piece between the upright bar and the flat board or base; it is diffi cult, therefore, to understand how the strings could have been sufficiently tightened to produce notes.†

In describing the dress of the Assyrians, I have had occasion to allude to their skill in the manufacture of linen and woollen stuffs, which were dyed, and embroidered not only with a variety of beautiful ornaments, but with groups of human figures and animals. Of all Asiatic nations, the Babylonians

Daniel, v. 2.

+ There is a representation of this musical instrument in the bas-relief of the king standing over the crouching lion, now in the British Museum. There are also several examples of it in my "Monuments of Nineveh." The god which Mr. Birch now conjectures to be Baal (Gallery, fig. 80), is represented at Talmis playing on a triangular lyre. (Rosellini, M. C., Teste, tome iii. p. 19. tav. ann.)

were most noted for the weaving of cloth of divers colors. In these stuffs gold threads were introduced into the woof of many hues.* Amongst those who traded in "blue clothes and embroidered work" with Tyre, were the merchants of Asshur or Assyria; and that the garments of Babylon were brought into Syria, and greatly esteemed at a very early period, we learn from their being classed amongst the most precious articles of spoil, even with gold, in the time of Joshua. They formed, perhaps, "the dyed attire and embroidered work" so frequently mentioned in the Scriptures as the garments of princes, and the most costly gifts of kings. The ornaments and figures upon them may either have been dyed, worked in the loom, or embroidered with the needle, like "the prey of divers colors of needle-work, of divers colors of needle-work on both sides."§

The cotton manufactures of Babylon were as remarkable for brilliancy of color as fineness of texture, and Pliny attributes the invention of cotton weaving to Semiramis. The silken robes of Assyria were equally esteemed. The looms of Babylon maintained their celebrity long after the fall of the Assyrian empire-even to the time of the Roman supremacy.¶

The carpets of Babylon were no less prized than her other manufactures. Like the Assyrian robes, they appear to have been embroidered with figures of animals and flowers. purple carpet covered the tomb of Cyrus; and on the bed upon

A

Pliny, viii. 48.

Joshua, vii. 21.

+ Ezekiel, xxvii. 24.

Achan confesses to Joshua that "when he saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, he coveted, and took them."

§ Judges, v. 30.

|| C. vii. p. 417.

According to Plutarch, Cato, receiving as a legacy a Babylonish garment, sold it, because too costly for a citizen to wear. Arech, on the Euphrates, was long celebrated for its looms. Some Babylonian curtains and draperies were sold, according to Pliny, for nearly £7000.