girdle. [PLATE CIV.,Fig. 2.] The archers who
rode in chariots carried their quivers at the chariot's side, in the
manner which has been already described and illustrated.

The ornamentation of quivers was generally elaborate. [PLATE CIV., Fig.
3.] Rosettes and bands constituted their most usual adornment; but
sometimes these gave place to designs of a more artistic character, as
wild bulls, griffins, and other mythic figures. Several examples of a
rich type have been already given in the representations of chariots,
but none exhibit this peculiarity. One further specimen of a chariot
quiver is therefore appended, which is among the most tasteful hitherto
discovered. [PLATE CIV., Fig. 3. ]

The quivers of the foot and horse archers were less richly adorned than
those of the bowmen who rode in chariots, but still they were in almost
every case more or less patterned. The rosette and the band here too
constituted the chief resource of the artist, who, however, often
introduced with good effect other well-known ornaments, as the
guilloche, the boss and cross, the zigzag, etc.

Sometimes the quiver had an ornamented rod attached to it, which
projected beyond the arrows and terminated in a pomegranate blossom or
other similar carving. [PLATE CV. Fig. 1]. To this rod was attached the
rings which received the quiver strap, a triple tassel hanging from them
at the point of attachment. The strap was probably of leather, and
appears to have been twisted or plaited.

[Illustration: PLATE 105]

It is uncertain whether the material of the quivers was wood or metal.
As, however, no remains of quivers have been discovered in any of the
ruins, while helmets, shields, diggers, spear-heads, and arrow-heads
have been found in tolerable abundance, we may perhaps assume that they
were of the more fragile substance, which would account for their
destruction. In this case their ornamentation may have been either by
carving or painting, the bosses and rosettes being perhaps in some cases
of metal, mother-of-pearl, or ivory. Ornaments of this kind were
discovered by hundreds at Nimrud in a chamber which contained arms of
many descriptions. Quivers have in some cases a curious rounded head,
which seems to have been a lid or cap used for covering the arrows. They
have also, occasionally, instead of this, a kind of bag at their top,
which falls backwards, and is ornamented with tassels. [PLATE CV., Fig.
2.] Both these constructions, however,