tant check and
counterpoise to the royal dignity.

Next to war, the favorite employment of the king and of the nobles
was hunting. The lion continued in the wild state an occupant of the
Mesopotamian river-banks and marshes; and in other parts of the empire
bears, leopards, and even tigers abounded. Thus the higher kinds of
sport were readily obtainable. The ordinary practice, however, of
the monarch and his courtiers seems to have fallen short of the true
sportsman's ideal. Instead of seeking the more dangerous kinds of
wild beasts in their native haunts, and engaging with them under the
conditions designed by nature, the Parthians were generally content
with a poorer and tamer method. They kept lions, leopards, and bears in
enclosed parks, or "paradises," and found pleasure in the pursuit and
slaughter of these denaturalized and half-domesticated animals. The
employment may still, even under these circumstances, have contained
an element of danger which rendered it exciting; but it was a poor
substitute for the true sport which the "mighty Hunter before the Lord"
had first practised in these regions.

The ordinary dress of the Parthian noble was a long loose robe reaching
to the feet, under which he wore a vest and trousers. Bright and
varied colors were affected, and sometimes dresses were interwoven or
embroidered with gold. In seasons of festivity garlands of fresh flowers
were worn upon the head. A long knife or dagger was carried at all
times, which might be used either as an implement or as a weapon.

In the earlier period of the empire the Parthian was noted as a spare
liver; but, as time went on, he aped the vices of more civilized
peoples, and became an indiscriminate eater and a hard drinker. Game
formed a main portion of his diet; but he occasionally indulged in pork,
and probably in other sorts of butcher's meat. He ate leavened bread,
with his meat, and various kinds of vegetables. The bread, which was
particularly light and porous, seems to have been imported sometimes by
the Romans, who knew it as _panis aquaticus_ or _panis Parthicus_. Dates
were also consumed largely by the Parthians, and in some parts of the
country grew to an extraordinary size. A kind of wine was made from
them; and this seems to have been the intoxicating drink in which
the nation generally indulged too freely. That made from the dates of
Babylon was the most highly esteemed, and was reserved for the use of
the king and the hig