Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/174

 1 4 6 A History of Art in Chald^ea and Assyria. cord, the straining bodies, the tension of every muscle in their desire to get at their quarry ! We can almost fancy we hear the deep, confused hayings with which they prelude the regular music of the hunt itself when the game is afoot. These animals are represented with no less truth and vivacity when a kill has taken, or is about to take, place. As an example of this we may point out a relief from the same palace in which two of these bloodhounds launch themselves upon a wild ass whose flight has been arrested by an arrow. The ass still manages to stagger along, but he will not go far ; the hounds are already upon him and have buried their teeth in his flanks and croup. 1 Other domestic animals are figured with no less sure a hand ; to each is given the proportions and attitudes that really Fig. 71. — Terra-cotta dog. British Museum. Height 2-| inches. characterise it. We shall now study them all in succession ; others have done so, and have found much precious information upon the fauna of Western Asia and upon the state of Mesopo- tamian civilization ; 2 we shall content ourselves with mentioning the principal types and those in which the sculptor has shown most skill. The colossi of the gateways have already given us an oppor- tunity for showing how art enlisted the powerful limbs and natural majesty of the bull in its service. Elsewhere the bovine race occupies a less important part in Assyrian sculpture than in that 1 This relief is figured in Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies, vol. i. p. 356. 2 W. Houghton, On the Mammalia of the Assyrian Sculptures in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archœology, vol. v. pp. 33-64, and 579-583.