NINEVEH AND ITS SCULPTURES.

(From Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations.)*

IN the chapters which relate to the Assyrian invasion of Judah under Sennacherib, there are many particulars which receive new and interesting illustration from the recent discoveries of Layard and Botta in Assyrian antiquities. These, indeed, refer chiefly to the public life of the Assyrians; and do not furnish those details of all the social and private life of the people which the painted tombs of Egypt present to us, but it is chiefly in their public life and warlike operations that the Scripture brings the Assyrians before us; and the sculptures which have been brought to light, do therefore furnish respecting this remarkable ancient people, exactly the kind of information which was most to be desired; and it is to be hoped that further discoveries may supply information respecting much that yet remains obscure or doubtful.

In the thirty-sixth and following chapter of Isaiah, reference is made nearly in the same words to that invasion of the land of Judah by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, which is recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the Second Book of Kings.

What first comes under consideration is the insolent message delivered before the walls of Jerusalem by Rabshakeh, in the name of his master, the king of Assyria. He first derides the Hebrews for trusting for help to the king of Egypt: "Lo, thou trustest on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it." This comparison would only be likely to occur to persons in the habit of using walking-staves. As it happens, this was equally true both of the Assyrians and the Egyptians, and was therefore the more appropriate; and in both the staves used in walking were taller than is usual with us-generally as tall as the shoulder; and it is evident from the Egyptian specimens

We hail with much pleasure the sixth volume of these "Illustrations;" a volume well worthy of its predecessors. Its copious references to the recent discoveries at Nineveh impart to it, if possible, an additional interest, whilst the same earnest, intelligent, and exact spirit of criticism pervades the whole.

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that men, when standing still, threw much of the weight of their bodies upon their staves-or, in other words, were apt to lean forcibly upon them, so that from this, as well as from their length, the accident of their breaking, unless of good quality, could not fail to be of frequent occurrence, which, from both circumstances, would more frequently be attended with injury than might at first be supposed. It is also observable that the Egyptian walking-staff has usually a slim, rod-like appearance, whereas the Assyrian one is commonly a stout and substantial stick; so that the former would be much more liable to break than the latter. It is therefore likely that the known frequency of this accident among the Egyptians gave much sarcastic point to the similitude by which Rabshakeh, leaning upon his own strong staff the while, denounced Judah's trust in the Egyptian king. It is well to add that the walking-cane appears far more frequently in the Egyptian than in the Assyrian monuments. This is doubtless because the latter refer chiefly to warlike proceedings, in which the personages find sufficient occcupation for their hands in the management of their weapons and their reins. It appears, however, as among the Egyptians, in social life. The king uses it when he takes his walks abroad, which may remind us moreover that staves were anciently the sceptres of kings, though all staves were not sceptres. Indeed, in Hebrew there is but one word for a staff and a sceptre.

Rabshakeh is not a name but a title of office, that of "chief cup-bearer;" a high office in the East, so that there is nothing extraordinary in persons holding it appearing as generals, ambassadors, or governors. In one of the sculptures from Nimrud, recently arrived at the British Museum, a cup-bearer is represented in discharge of his proper office. The king is seated on his throne, which is an ornamented and elevated chair without any back, and has just taken the broad sancer-like wine-cup from the salver, and holds it, not as we should do, but sustains it upon the points of his fingers, after a fashion still usual in the same region. Before him stands the cup-bearer, holding in his right hand a fly-flapper, and in the other the salver, on which he has presented the wine-cup, which is furnished with a curious handle terminating in bird's

heads. The physiogonmy and beardless face of the cup-bearer, indicate that he was an eunuch. There is little doubt that Rabshakeh was also of that class. In fact, one of the principal officers of the Assyrian is expressly designated by his official title of "Rabsaris," or "chief of the eunuchs." Indeed the monuments show the personal attendants of the king to have been chiefly eunuchs; and that those persons rose to the highest rank, and were not merely servants, is shown from the Scripture instances, remarkably corroborated by the sculptures, in which, says Layard, "eunuchs are represented as commanding in war; fighting both in chariots and on horseback; and receiving the prisoners and the heads of the slain after battle. They were also employed as scribes, and are seen writing down the number of the heads and the amount of the spoil obtained from the enemy. They were even accustomed to officiate in religious ceremonies. They appear, indeed, to have occupied the more important posts, and to have exercised the same influence in the Assyrian court as they have since done in the East, where they have not only filled the highest offices of state, but have even attained to sovereign power."

In the Thirty-second Volume of the Archæologia of the Society of Antiquaries, there is a memoir by Mr. Birch of the British Museum, relative to "Two bas-reliefs of Assyrian sculpture removed from Khorsabad." These bas-reliefs form a portion of the discoveries of M. Botta, and were sent by our consul at Mosul (Mr. Rassam) to the late Sir Robert Peel, who sent them to the British Museum for examination and inspection. There were two heads of colossal size, of which engravings are furnished in the publication named. One is that of a warrior; the other, which is that of an eunuch, has the features of a man, rather full, with aquiline nose, soft expression, hair gathered in undulating curls to the back of the head, where it clusters in short spiral curls, with a light fillet colored blue and red passing over the head. The chin is particularly double, and there are ear-rings resembling the Egyptian symbol of life. Mr. Birch, looking to this as a work of art, says: "The eyes and brows of the head of the eunuch are most peculiar in their treatment. The eyebrow is literally cut out and colored black; the lids of the eyes are shell-like, and dyed with the

stibium, and the pupil is for a full eye, and colored black. A singular effect is produced by the pupil not being so large as the eye; but this was, no doubt, very different when the monument was in situ, as the height must have rendered it less striking. The chin is peculiarly double and full, although the rest of the face indicates youth; but it would appear from the Egyptian monuments that some of the tribes of Central Asiathe Cheta, for example, a people in the vicinity of Mesopotamia, had this physical development. There is a smile upon the features; and the whole bears much relation to the Egyptian sculptures in part of the treatment; while, on the other hand, it is unequivocally of the same school as early Persian art, and the rigid works of the Archaic-Greek school, executed prior to the Persian invasion of Greece."

An essentially equestrian people like the Assyrians must have been singularly impressed by the absence of cavalry among the Hebrews; and, seeing the inordinate estimation in which this kind of force was anciently held, this fact goes far to explain the supreme contempt with which the Assyrian commander speaks of the military resources of the nation. That this had its root in this circumstance is shown by the bitter taunt of Rabshakeh-" Now therefore, give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them." There are other passages indicating that, in the view of the Jews, the Assyrians were remarkable for their cavalry. So Hosea (xiv. 3)—" Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses."

In fact, the mention of Assyria is as much connected with horses, as that of Arabia would be now. Arabia on the other hand, is connected with camels, never with horses; and there appears reason to doubt that Mesopotamia and the neighbouring deserts of Arabia, possessed in Biblical times that noble breed of horses for which it has since been famous, and whether it was not rather introduced shortly before the Arabian conquest. Solomon would not have needed to import horses from Egypt, had Arabia possessed an equal or a more valuable breed. It may indeed be urged, that this king wanted horses trained for chariots, not saddle-horses, for which alone Arabia has ever

been celebrated. But to this it may be answered, Arabians are always represented as riding on camels; and it is historically stated that the Arabians in the army of Xerxes were mounted on camels, and were placed in the rear, because the camels frightened the horses. This fact is remarkable, as showing that the camels were not then accustomed to the company of horses in their own country.

But, to return to Assyria and its horses, it may be remarked that the Kurds, the modern inhabitants of Assyria, are to this day noted for their horses and horsemanship in a degree scarcely second to the Arabians. We are not sufficiently versed in the "points" of the horse to be able to say, whether the breed that we ourselves continually saw and rode upon in that country, be the same as that of the sculptures; but, speaking from inexperienced impression merely, we should think the Assyrian horses of the sculptures of somewhat heavier build, which may arise from their being among the Assyrians not less in demand-perhaps more in demand-for the chariot than for the saddle. The horse of the sculptures is, however, in the judgment of Layard, "well formed, and apparently of noble blood." He adduces some reasons for believing that the Egyptians derived their horses from the Assyrian provinces. To these horses he applies the allusion of the prophet (Habakkuk i. 8) to the horses of the Chaldeans, which must have been of the same breed-"Their horses are swifter than the leopards, and more fierce than the evening wolves." He declares that no one can look at the horses of the early Assyrians sculptures, without being convinced that they are drawn from the finest models. The head is small and well shaped, the nostrils large and high, the neck arched, the body long, and the legs slender and sinewy. That the Assyrians carefully portrayed animals, is shown by their figures of lions, bulls, goats, and stags, so frequently introduced in their bas-reliefs; it is highly probable, therefore, that they carefully copied the forms of their horses, and showed the points for which they were most distinguished. It is not unlikely that, as Layard well supposes, the plains watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, producing during the winter and spring the richest pasturage, were at the earliest period as celebrated as they