the back, while a little lower down to the right, a lioness smitten through the lungs has rolled over helplessly on her back. At the bottom of this unique scene we have another lion transfixed by some five arrows, most of which are lodged in or about the animal’s head; like the lioness he has sunk over on his back, his limbs being contorted almost beyond recognition. To the left we have the full hind-quarters of a lion who is springing up in a frenzy of rage excited by an arrow-wound in the back. Last of all in the bottom left-hand corner another lion is seen in the act of expiring as the result of his wounds. But whatever end befell the unfortunate lion, he seems to have been attended with ceremonial rites at the last, his body was conveyed home by three or four male servants, and stretched upon the ground, after which the king himself pours a libation over the silent, motionless animal, whose grandeur in death is only surpassed by his energy in life (cf. Pl. XX). The large majority of the visitors to the Assyrian Saloon in the British Museum, where these masterpieces of animal reproduction are arranged, have never witnessed a lion hunt in real life, but none can go away without having an ineffaceable impression left on his mind of the grimness of such a scene, of which the reality is here so graphically portrayed. Lion-hunting was doubtless the favourite sport of the Assyrian kings, but other game also engaged the royal patronage, notably deer, wild asses and bulls. Ashur-naṣir-pal has left us a sculpture in which he is represented hunting wild bulls from his chariot, and in Pl. XX we have a bas-relief from Ashur-bani-pal’s palace on which a wild-ass hunt is seen in full progress. In the upper part of the scene a wild-ass lies helpless on his back, pierced by three arrows, while a fourth arrow is on the wing, though swiftly nearing its appointed goal. To the right we see another ass rushing away in hot haste before the double onslaught of dogs and arrows. To the left two dogs resembling mastiffs are busily engaged in checking the headlong course of a wild ass whose flight has already been retarded by the arrow which has pierced his fore-quarters. Below, a hound of the type already alluded to is in mad pursuit of a young foal. The foal is preceded by a full-grown ass who is turning its head solicitously, possibly in anxiety for its own safety, possibly for that of the young foal behind. The manner in which this latter action has been portrayed by the artist is surprising in its fidelity to nature and its artistic merits. To enable the reader to form a fair and correct estimate of the genius of the Assyrians in the art of animal representation it would be necessary to give reproductions of the whole series of Ashur-bani-pal’s hunting scenes, but it is hoped that sufficient has here been shown to demonstrate their extraordinary ability in this direction. _PLATE XX_ [Illustration: ASHUR-BANI-PAL’S HUNTING SCENES: HUNTING WILD ASSES WITH DOGS]