f a lion's head,
from which the cup itself rises in a graceful curve. [PLATE CXXXVIII.,
Fig. 2.] They all raise their cups to a level with their heads, and look
as if they were either pledging each other, or else one and all drinking
the same toast. Both the stools and the tables are handsome, and
tastefully, though not very richly, ornamented. Each table is overspread
with a table-cloth, which hangs down on either side opposite the guests,
but does not cover the ends of the table, which are thus fully exposed
to view. In their general make the tables exactly resemble that used in
a banquet scene by a king of a later date, but their ornamentation is
much less elaborate. On each of them appears to have been placed the
enigmatical article of which mention has been already made as a strange
object generally accompanying the king. Alongside of it we see in most
instances a sort of rude crescent. These objects have probably, both of
them, a sacred import, the crescent being the emblem of Sin, the
Moon-God, while the nameless article had some unknown religious use or
meaning.

In the great banqueting scene at Khorsabad, from which the above
description is chiefly taken, it is shown that the Assyrians, like the
Egyptians and the Greeks in the heroic times, had the entertainment of
music at their grand feasts and drinking bouts. At one end of the long
series of figures representing guests and attendants was a band of
performers, at least three in number, two of whom certainly played upon
the lyre. The lyres were ten-stringed, of a square shape, and hung round
the player's neck by a string or ribbon.

The Assyrians also resembled the Greeks and Romans in introducing
flowers into their feasts. We have no evidence that they wore garlands,
or crowned themselves with chaplets of flowers, or scattered roses over
their rooms; but still they appreciated the delightful adornment which
flowers furnish. In the long train of attendance represented at Koyunjik
as bringing the materials of a banquet into the palace of the king, a
considerable number bear vases of flowers. [PLATE CXXXVIII., Fig. 3.]
These were probably placed on stands, like those which are often seen
supporting jars, and dispersed about the apartment in which the feast
was held, but not put upon the tables.

We have no knowledge of the ordinary houses of the Assyrians other than
that which we derive from the single representation which the sculptures
furnish of a village