. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . ird, ortolan, pigeon,and turtle-dove abound on every side, in spite of daily onslaughts fromeagles, hawks, and other birds of Snakes are found here and there, 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimrûd iu the British Museum. 2 For the birds represented or named on the monuments, see the monograph by W. Houghton,The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records, in the Trans, of the Bill. Arch. Soc, vol. iii. pp. 42-142. .558 ANCIENT CHALDjEA. but they are for the most part of innocuous species : three poisonous varietiesonly ar
. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . ird, ortolan, pigeon,and turtle-dove abound on every side, in spite of daily onslaughts fromeagles, hawks, and other birds of Snakes are found here and there, 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimrûd iu the British Museum. 2 For the birds represented or named on the monuments, see the monograph by W. Houghton,The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records, in the Trans, of the Bill. Arch. Soc, vol. iii. pp. 42-142. .558 ANCIENT CHALDjEA. but they are for the most part of innocuous species : three poisonous varietiesonly are known, and their bite does not produce such terrible consequencesas that of the horned viper or Egyptian urseus. There are two kinds of lion—one without mane, and the other hooded, with a heavy mass of black andtangled hair : the proper signification of the old Chaldœan name was the greatdog, and they have, indeed, a greater resemblance to large dogs than to thered lions of They fly at the approach of man ; they betake themselves. THE HEAVILY MANED LION WOUNDED BY AN ARROW AND VOMITING in the daytime to retreats among the marshes or in the thickets which borderthe rivers, sallying forth at night, like the jackal, to scour the country. Drivento bay, they turn upon the assailant and fight desperately. The Chaldasankings, like the Pharaohs, did not shrink from entering into a close conflictwith them, and boasted of having rendered a service to their subjects by thedestruction of many of these beasts. The elephant seems to have roamed forsome time over the steppes of the middle Euphrates ;8 there is no indicationof its presence after the XIIIth century before our era, and from that time 1 The Sumerian name of the lion is ur-malcli, the great dog. The best description of the first-mentioned species is still that of Olivier (Voyage dans lEmpire Othoman, vol. ii. pp. 42G, 427), whosaw in the house of the Pasha of Bagdad five of them in captivity ; cf. Layard, Ni
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidd, booksubjectcivilization
