re practised
by the Assyrians. Asshur-izir-pal tells us in his great Inscription that
he often cut off the noses and the ears of prisoners; while a slab of
Asshur-bani-pal, the son of Esarhaddon, shows a captive in the hands of
the torturers, one of whom holds his head firm and fast, while another
thrusts his hand into his mouth for the purpose of tearing out the
tongue.

The captives carried away by the conquerors consisted of men, women, and
children. The men were formed into bands, under the conduct of officers,
who urged theme forward on their way by blows, with small regard to
their sufferings. Commonly they were conveyed to the capital, where they
were employed by the monarchs in the lower or higher departments of
labor, according to their capacities. The skilled workmen were in
request to assist in the ornamentation of shrines and palaces, while the
great mass of the unskilled were made use of to quarry and drag stone,
to raise mounds, make bricks, and the like. Sometimes, instead of being
thus employed in task-work in or near the capital, the captives were
simply settled in new regions, where it was thought that they would
maintain the Assyrian power against native malcontents. Thus Esarhaddon
planted Babylonians, Susanchites, Dehavites, Elamites, and others in
Samaria, while Sargon settled his Samaritan captives in Gauzanitis and
in "the cities of the Medes."

[Illustration: PLATE 112]

The women and children carried off by the conquerors were treated with
more tenderness than the men. [PLATE CXII., Fig. 2.] Sometimes on foot,
but often mounted on mules, or seated in carts drawn by bullocks or
asses, they followed in the train of their new masters, not always
perhaps unwilling to exchange the monotony of domestic life at home for
the excitement of a new and unknown condition in a fresh country. We
seldom see them exhibiting any signs of grief. The women and children
are together, and the mothers lavish on their little ones the usual
caresses and kind offices, taking them in their laps, giving then the
breast, carrying them upon their shoulders, or else leading them by the
hand. At intervals they were allowed to stop and rest; and it was not
even the practice to deprive them of such portion of their household
stuff as they might have contrived to secure before quitting their
homes. This they commonly bore in a bag or sack, which was either held
in the hand or thrown over one shoulder, When they reached Assyri