two in combination.
Still each appears on the bas-reliefs separately--the crane employed for
drawing water from the rivers, and spreading it over the lands, the
pulley for lowering and raising the bucket in wells. [PLATE LXXXIX.,
Fig. 3.]

[Illustration: PLATE 89]

We must conclude from these facts that the Assyrians had made
considerable advances in mechanical knowledge, and were, in fact,
acquainted, more or less, with most of the contrivances whereby heavy
weights have commonly been moved and raised among the civilized nations
of Europe. We have also evidence of their skill in the mechanical
processes of shaping pottery and glass, of casting and embossing metals,
and of cutting intaglios upon hard stones. Thus it was not merely in the
ruder and coarser, but likewise in the more delicate processes, that
they excelled. The secrets of metallurgy, of dyeing, enamelling,
inlaying, glass-blowing, as well as most of the ordinary manufacturing
processes, were known to them. In all the common arts and appliances of
life, they must be pronounced at least on a par with the Egyptians,
while in taste they greatly exceeded, not that nation only, but all the
Orientals. Their "high art" is no doubt much inferior to that of Greece;
but it has real merit, and is most remarkable considering the time when
it was produced. It has grandeur, dignity, boldness, strength, and
sometimes even freedom and delicacy; it is honest and painstaking,
unsparing of labor, and always anxious for truth. Above all, it is not
lifeless and stationary, like the art of the Egyptians and the Chinese,
but progressive and aiming at improvement. To judge by the advance over
previous works which we observe in the sculptures of the son of
Esarhaddon, it would seem that if Assyria had not been assailed by
barbaric enemies about his time, she might have anticipated by above a
century the finished excellence of the Greeks.

CHAPTER VII.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

"Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs
shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind."--ISA.
v. 28.

In reviewing, so far as our materials permit, the manners and customs of
the Assyrians, it will be convenient to consider separately their
warlike and their peaceful usages. The sculptures furnish very full
illustration of the former, while on the latter they throw light far
more sparingly.

The Assyrians fought in chariots, on horseback, and on foot.