[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Bronze siren.] [Illustration: Fig. 103.--The demon of the South-west wind. Bronze (Louvre).] of their arms, nose and eyes, with a long coat of iron mail, were mediæval knights? The shape of the Assyrian helmet varies according to the time, and perhaps also according to military rank. There is the helmet formed of a conical basin, without ornament, the helmet provided with cheek-pieces, as among the Greeks, the helmet decorated with an elegant crest bearing an aigrette of feathers or of horsehair. But the essential form is always that of a hemispherical basin, covering the head, but leaving the face bare. A votive shield, preserved at the British Museum, has, like those represented in the bas-reliefs, the form of a large round disk, convex in its central part; this metal disk, 34 in. in diameter, is decorated like the pateræ with a central rosette and several concentric zones containing lions and bulls in relief. The preceding examples prove the existence of a manufacture of metals which had reached a high degree of perfection, and was in possession of all the technical methods. Accordingly, we believe that the scanty number of statues or statuettes in bronze of human beings or of Assyrian deities must be attributed to an unfortunate chance. They must have been produced in large numbers, as in ancient Chaldæa, and a good proof of this is the large cow’s head disinterred near Bagdad and preserved at the British Museum[47]; another example is the statuette of a lion found at Khorsabad (fig. 100); this has, doubtless, serious defects, such as a singular disproportion between the head and the body, between the fore legs and the hind legs; but what truth of expression in the muzzle with its gaping mouth, and in those powerful claws! [Illustration: Fig. 104.--Bronze plaque. De Clercq collection.] A statuette in M. de Vogüé’s collection, found at Van, represents a sort of siren which seems to have acted as an ornament attached to a vessel or a piece of furniture (figs. 101 and 102). The oriental appearance of the head, the hair in ringlets, the large eyes, the bracelets upon the outstretched arms behind the wings, and the artistically marked feathers, make of this little monument one of the most precious relics of the art of working in bronze among the Assyrians. A similar figure is preserved in the British Museum, and in this instance the loose ring by which the vessel was held is still in place. [Illustration: Fig. 105.--Bronze plaque. De Clercq collection (other side).]