animals, evidently of a fine breed, such as that for
which Khuzistan is famous at the present day. [PLATE. VIII., Fig. 4.]
The asses from which these mules were produced must also have been of
superior quality, like the breed for which Baghdad is even now famous,
The Babylonian horses are not likely to have been nearly so good; for
this animal does not flourish in a climate which is at once moist and
hot. Still, at any rate under the Persians, Babylonia seems to have been
a great breeding-place for horses, since the stud of a single satrap
consisted of 800 stallions and 16,000 mares. If we may judge of the
character of Babylonian from that of Susianian steeds, we may consider
the breed to have, been strong and large limbed, but not very handsome,
the head being too large and the legs too short for beauty. [PLATE IX.,
Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: PLATE IX.]

The Babylonians were also from very early times famous for their
breed of dogs. The tablet engraved in a former volume, which gives a
representation of a Babylonian hound, is probably of a high antiquity,
not later than the period or the Empire. Dogs are also not unfrequently
represented on ancient Babylonian stones and cylinders. It would seem
that, as in Assyria, there were two principal breeds, one somewhat
clumsy and heavy, of a character not unlike that of our mastiff, the
other of a much lighter make, nearly resembling our greyhound. The
former kind is probably the breed known as Indian, which was kept up
by continual importations from the country whence it was originally
derived.[PLATE. IX., Fig. 2.]

We have no evidence that camels were employed in the time of the
Empire, either by the Babylonians themselves or by their neighbors, the
Susianians; but in Upper Mesopotamia, in Syria, and in Palestine
they had been in use from a very early date. The Amalekitos and the
Midianites found them serviceable in war; and the latter people employed
them also as beasts of burden in their caravan trade. The Syrians of
Upper Mesopotamia rode upon them in their journeys. It appears that
they were also sometimes yoked to chariots, though from their size and
clumsiness they would be but ill fitted for beasts of draught.

Buffaloes were, it is probable, domesticated by the Babylonians at an
early date. The animal seems to have been indigenous in the country, and
it is far better suited for the marshy regions of Lower Babylonia and
Susiana than cattle of the ordinary kind.