[Illustration: FIG. 206.—1. BABYLONIAN BRONZE DAGGER; 2, 3. ASSYRIAN SWORDS (Layard); 4. ASSYRIAN BRONZE SWORD (bas-relief in Palace of Khorsabad, reign of Sargon, B.C. 721–706).] [Illustration: FIG. 207.—DAGGER-SWORD IN SHEATH.] [Illustration: FIG. 208.—DAGGER-SWORD.] [Illustration: FIG. 209.—CLUB-SWORD.] [Illustration: FIG. 210.—FANCY SWORD.] Mostly the weapons have richly decorated hilts and scabbards. In a royal sculpture the pommel is formed by a mound or hemisphere—a constant ornament—and below it is a ball between two flat discs: the upper jaws of two lions, placed opposite each other, embrace the blade and the grip where it presses against the metal sheath-mouth. Another has a lion’s head on the handle. The two-lion scabbard is common, and sometimes the beasts are locked in a death embrace. In another specimen the royal blade is much broader than usual, and two lions couchant form the ferrule, embracing the sheath with their paws and retrogardant or bending their heads backwards (fig. 212). The ferrule of another is enriched with a guilloche. In the inscriptions of Assur-bani-pal[674] (Sardanapalus) we read of a ‘steel Sword and its sheath of gold,’ and of ‘steel Swords of their girdles.’ Another legend runs—‘He lifted his great Sword called “Lord of the Storm,”’ proving that the Sword, like the horse, the chariot, the boat, and other favourites, had names and titles. [Illustration: FIG. 211.—ASSYRIAN SWORDS.] [Illustration: FIG. 212.—ASSYRIAN SWORDS.] [Illustration: FIG. 213.—ASSYRIAN DAGGER.] The dagger is often decorated with the head of the hippopotamus (a Nilotic, or rather African, beast) surmounting an imbricated handle (fig. 213).[675] This poniard is worn in the girdle, and in some cases it appears under and behind the surcoat. The longer weapon is carried by a narrow bauldric slung over the right shoulder and meeting another cord-shaped band at the breast, in fact suggesting our antiquated cross-belts. The Sword is always worn on the left side.[676] A royal Sword-belt bears several ranges of bosses and globules, which may be pearls: that of the eunuch-attendant has three wide rows, the central broken here and there by round plates. A Magian wears a broad scarf with long hanging fringes cast obliquely over the left shoulder: it is edged with a triple series of small rosettes placed in squares, and it passes over the Sword, to which, perhaps, it acts bauldric. A soldier’s bauldric is coloured red, like the wood of the bows and arrows. Another eunuch wears the Sword-belt buckled over the waist-sash, and holds in his right hand a scourge: this was the emblem of official rank, as the Egyptian carried a hide-Kurbáj.[677] Another soldier has, besides the Kamar-band (waist-sash), a red belt, and what seems to be its tassels hanging from the shoulders before and behind. [Illustration: FIG. 214.—ASSYRIO-BABYLONIAN ARCHER in war coat, leggings, and fillet. Bas-relief, B.C. 700. (Museum of the Louvre.)]