Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/197

 On the Representations of Animals. 167 and the wings that spring from the shoulders are borrowed from the eagle. 1 We have already described the most remarkable of all these composite types, the man-headed bull and lion ; we have attempted to explain the intellectual idea which gave them birth ; we have yet to point out a variety which is not without importance. The lion has sometimes been given, not only the head, but also the arms and bust of a man. In one of the entrances to the palace of Assurbanipal there was a colossus of this kind (Vol. I, Fig. 114). 2 With one arm this man-lion presses against his Fig. 86.- ■Dog. Terra-cotta. British Museum. Height about 5 inches. Drawn by Saint- Elme Gautier. body what seems to be a goat or a deer, while the other, hanging at his side, holds a flowering branch. This figure, like almost 1 In the inventory this monument is described as acquired in Syria, that is to say it was bought from M. Peretié, at Beyrout. M. Peretié was a well-known collector, and objects found in Mesopotamia were continually brought to him from Mossoul, Bagdad, and Bassorah. There can be no doubt as to the origin of this little monument ; the execution is certainly Chaldaean or Assyrian. The same monster, rampant, is to be found on the Assyrian cylinder described by M. Lenormant under the title, Le Dieu-lune délivré de V Attaque des mauvais Esprits {Gazette archéologique, 1878, p. 20). 2 As to where this colossus was found, see Layard, Nineveh, vol. i. p. 68.