ery early times between India and Dedan (Bahrein,?) in the
Persian Gulf. The travelling companies of the Dedanim, who conveyed
this precious merchandise from their own country to Phoenicia, passed
probably along the course of the Euphrates, and left a portion of their
wares in the marts upon that stream, which may have been thence conveyed
to the great Assyrian cities. Or the same people may have traded
directly with Assyria by the route of the Tigris. Again, it is quite
conceivable--indeed, it is probable--that there was a land traffic
between Assyria and Western India by the way of Cabal, Herat, the
Caspian Gates, and Media. Of this route we have a trace in the land
animals engraved upon the well-known Black Obelisk, where the
combination of the small-eared or Indian elephant and the rhinoceros
with the two-humped Bactrian camel, sufficiently marks the line by which
the productions of India, occasionally at, any rate, reached Assyria.
The animals themselves were, we may be sure, very rarely transported.
Indeed, it is not till the very close of the Persian empire that we find
elephants possessed--and even then in scanty numbers--by the western
Asiatic monarchs. But the more portable products of the Indus region,
elephants' tusks, gold, and perhaps shawls and muslins, are likely to
have passed to the west by this route with far greater frequency.

The Assyrians were connoisseurs in hard stones and gems, which they seem
to have imported from all quarters. The lapis lazuli, which is found
frequently among the remains as the material of seals, combs, rings,
jars, and other small objects, probably came from Bactria or the
adjacent regions, whence alone it is procurable at the present day. The
cornelian used for cylinders may have come from Babylonia, which,
according to Pliny furnished it of the best quality in the more ancient
times. The agates or onyxes may have been imported from Susiana, where
they were found in the bed of the Choaspes (_Kerkhah_), or they may
possibly have been brought from India. Other varieties are likely to
have been furnished by Armenia, which is rich in stones; and hence too
was probably obtained the _shamir_, or emery-stone, by means of which
the Assyrians were enabled to engrave all the other hard substances
known to them.

That cedar-wood was imported into Assyria is sufficiently indicated by
the fact that, although no cedars grew in the country, the beams in the
palaces were frequently of thi