erhaps of a favorite minister, or a few
friends. The lion was engaged hand to hand with sword or spear; the more
dangerous tiger was attacked from a distance with arrows. Stags and
wild boars were sufficiently abundant to make the keeping of them in
paradises unnecessary. When the king desired to hunt them, it was only
requisite to beat a certain extent of country in order to make sure of
finding the game. This appears to have been done generally by elephants,
which entered the marshes or the woodlands, and, spreading themselves
wide, drove the animals before them towards an enclosed space,
surrounded by a net or a fence, where the king was stationed with his
friends and attendants. If the tract was a marsh, the monarch occupied
a boat, from which he quietly took aim at the beasts that came within
shot. Otherwise he pursued the game on horseback, and transfixed it
while riding at full speed. In either case he seems to have joined to
the pleasures of the chase the delights of music. Bands of harpers and
other musicians were placed near him within the enclosure, and he could
listen to their strains while he took his pastime.

The musical instruments which appear distinctly on the Sassanian
sculptures are the harp, the horn, the drum, and the flute or pipe. The
harp is triangular, and has seven strings; it is held in the lap, and
played apparently by both hands. The drum is of small size. The horns
and pipes are too rudely represented for their exact character to be
apparent. Concerted pieces seem to have been sometimes played by harpers
only, of whom as many as ten or twelve joined in the execution. Mixed
bands were more numerous. In one instance the number of performers
amounts to twenty-six, of whom seven play the harp, an equal number
the flute or pipe, three the horn, one the drum, while eight are too
slightly rendered for their instruments to be recognized. A portion of
the musicians occupy an elevated orchestra, to which there is access by a
flight of steps.

There is reason to believe that the Sassanian monarchs took a pleasure
also in the pastime of hawking. It has been already noticed that among
the officers of the court was a "Head Falconer," who must have presided
over this species of sport. Hawking was of great antiquity in the East,
and appears to have been handed down uninterruptedly from remote times
to the present day. We may reasonably conjecture that the ostriches and
pheasants, if not the peacocks also