A large number of these bas-reliefs are concerned with lion-hunting; from Pl. XVIII it would appear that lions sometimes suffered themselves to become domesticated; we here see a lion and lioness, the one standing, the other lying carelessly stretched at its ease upon the ground, in a kind of garden, the cultivated character of which is manifest from the presence of a vine. The lion stands before the crouching lioness with head and fore-paws outstretched, in a manner well-illustrative of that dignity and majesty which is always and has always been associated with the king of animals. Unfortunately most of the head and the entire hind-quarters of the lion are missing, but sufficient remains of the animal for us to imagine the rest without much risk of our imagination leading us astray. _PLATE XVIII_ [Illustration: _Photo. Mansell British Museum_ ASHUR-BANI-PAL’S HUNTING SCENES: LION AND LIONESS IN A PARK OR GARDEN] _PLATE XIX_ [Illustration: _Photos. Mansell British Museum_ ASHUR-BANI-PAL’S HUNTING SCENES] But the animals which were the victims of the royal sport must clearly have been wild; sometimes they admitted of being hunted in their natural state, but in Ashur-bani-pal’s time it was evidently necessary to capture them beforehand and keep them in cages till required for the hunt. In Pl. XIX we see one such captive specimen emerging from his temporary prison at the instance of the attendant who has pulled up the wicker gate of the cage. The lion’s satisfaction at his release is shown by the alacrity with which he sallies forth, little conscious of the doom in front of him. Though the end seems always to have been the same, the method by which the end was accomplished varied from time to time. Thus on one occasion the king is seen thrusting his long-shafted spear into the lion’s back, himself securely mounted in his chariot; at another time he is on foot, and is almost playfully stabbing the lion in the neck with his dagger, but the more usual way—no doubt, because the safest—of dispatching big game, and lions in particular, seems to have been by means of the bow and arrow which could be brought into play at a respectful distance. In Pl. XIX we see a number of lions thus transfixed; their various positions, some of which are sublimely natural, while others appear rather imaginative, all speak eloquently and in moving terms of that common tragedy to which all the animal world, whether human or bestial must some day become victims,—the tragedy of death. One lion is seen transfixed by four arrows, two of which are deeply lodged in the lion’s neck, a third in the centre of the head, and the last in the middle of the back. The lion is prostrate, his four legs dragging helplessly behind and underneath his massive body, while his face bespeaks the death-agony in which he lies convulsed. Above, on the left, another animal has been incapacitated, if not mortally wounded, by two arrow wounds, one in the neck and the other in