Assyria, Its Princes, Priests and People Part 5

It is impossible to determine the age of the great Chaldean epic, but it must have been composed subsequently to the period when, through the precession of the equinoxes, Aries came to be the first sign of the Zodiac instead of Taurus, that is to say, about B.C. 2500. On the other hand, it is difficult to make it later than B.C. 2000, while the whole character and texture of the poem shows that it has been put together from older lays, which have been united into a single whole. The poem deservedly continued to be a favourite among the Babylonians and a.s.syrians, and more than one edition of it was made for the library of a.s.sur-bani-pal. A translation of all the portions of it that have been discovered will be found in George Smith's 'Chaldean Account of Genesis.'

It is difficult for the English reader to appreciate justly the real character of many of these old poems. The tablets on which they are inscribed were broken in pieces when Nineveh was destroyed, and the roof of the library fell in upon them. A text, therefore, has generally to be pieced together from a number of fragments, leaving gaps and lacunae which mar the pleasure of reading it. Then, again, the translator frequently comes across a word or phrase which is new to him, and which he is consequently obliged to leave untranslated or to render purely conjecturally. At times there is a lacuna in the original text itself.

When the a.s.syrian scribe was unable to read the tablet he was copying, either because the characters had been effaced by time or because their Babylonian forms were unknown to him, he wrote the word _khibi_, 'it is wanting,' and left a blank in his text. It is not wonderful, therefore, that what is really a fine piece of literature reads tamely and poorly in its English dress, more especially when we remember that the decipherer is compelled to translate literally, and cannot have recourse to those idiomatic paraphrases which are permissible when we are dealing with known languages.

But it must be confessed that many of the best compositions of Babylonia are spoilt for us by the references to a puerile superst.i.tion, and the ever-present dread of witchcraft and magic which they contain. A good example of this curious mixture of exalted thought and debasing superst.i.tion is the following hymn to the Sun-G.o.d:-

'O Sun-G.o.d, king of heaven and earth, director of things above and below, O Sun-G.o.d, thou that clothest the dead with life, delivered by thy hands, judge unbribed, director of mankind, supreme in mercy for him that is in trouble, bidding the child and offspring come forth, light of the world, creator of all thy land, the Sun-G.o.d art thou!

O Sun-G.o.d, when the bewitchment for many days is bound behind me and there is no deliverer, the expulsion of the curse and return of health are brought about (by thee).

Among mankind, the flock of the G.o.d Ner, whatever be their names, he selects me: after trouble he fills me with rest, and day and night I stand undarkened.

In the anguish of my heart and the sickness of my body there is ...

O father supreme, I am debased and walk to and fro.

In misery and affliction I held myself (?).

My littleness (?) I know not, the sin I have committed I knew not.

I am small and he is great: The walls of my G.o.d may I pa.s.s.

O bird stand still and hear the hound!

O Sun-G.o.d stand still and hear me!

The name of the evil bewitchment that has been brought about overpower, whether the bewitchment of my father, or the bewitchment of my begetter, or the bewitchment of the seven branches of the house of my father, or the bewitchment of my family and my slaves, or the bewitchment of my free-born women and concubines, or the bewitchment of the dead and the living, or the bewitchment of the adult and the suckling (?), or the bewitchment of my father and of him who is not my father.

To father and mother be thou a father, and to brother and child be thou a father.

To friend and neighbour be thou a father, and to handmaid and man be thou a father.

To the field thou hast made and thy ... be thou a father.

May the name of my G.o.d be a father where there is no justice.

To mankind, the flock of the G.o.d Ner, whatever be their names, who are in field and city, speak, O Sun-G.o.d, mighty lord, and bid the evil enchantment be at rest.'

Even the science of the Babylonians and their a.s.syrian disciples was not free from superst.i.tion. Astronomy was mixed with astrology, and their observation of terrestrial phenomena led only to an elaborate system of augury. The false a.s.sumption was made that an event was caused by another which had immediately preceded it; and hence it was laid down that whenever two events had been observed to follow one upon the other, the recurrence of the first would cause the other to follow again. The a.s.sumption was an ill.u.s.tration of the well-known fallacy: 'Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.' It produced both the pseudo-science of astrology and the pseudo-science of augury.

The standard work on astronomy, as has already been noted, was that called 'The Observations of Bel,' compiled originally for the library of Sargon I at Accad. Additions were made to it from time to time, the chief object of the work being to notice the events which happened after each celestial phenomenon. Thus the occurrences which at different periods followed a solar eclipse on a particular day were all duly introduced into the text and piled, as it were, one upon the other. The table of contents prefixed to the work showed that it treated of various matters-eclipses of the sun and moon, the conjunction of the sun and moon, the phases of Venus and Mars, the position of the pole-star, the changes of the weather, the appearance of comets, or, as they are called, 'stars with a tail behind and a corona in front,' and the like. The immense collection of records of eclipses indicates the length of time during which observations of the heavens had been carried on. As it is generally stated whether a solar eclipse had happened 'according to calculation' or 'contrary to calculation,' it is clear that the Babylonians were acquainted at an early date with the periodicity of eclipses of the sun. The beginning of the year was determined by the position of the star Dilgan (a Aurigae) in relation to the new moon at the vernal equinox, and the night was originally divided into three watches. Subsequently the _kasbu_ or 'double hour' was introduced to mark time, twelve _kasbu_ being equivalent to a night and day. Time itself was measured by a clepsydra or water-clock, as well as by a gnomon or dial. The dial set up by Ahaz at Jerusalem (2 Kings xx.

11) was doubtless one of the fruits of his intercourse with the a.s.syrians.

The Zodiacal signs had been marked out and named at that remote period when the sun was still in Taurus at the beginning of spring, and the equator had been divided into sixty degrees. The year was correspondingly divided into twelve months, each of thirty days, intercalary months being counted in by the priests when necessary. The British Museum possesses fragments of a planisphere from Nineveh, representing the sky at the time of the vernal equinox, the constellation of Tammuz or Orion being specially noticeable upon it.

Another tablet contains a table of lunar longitudes.

With all this attention to astronomical matters it is not surprising that every great city boasted of an observatory, erected on the summit of a lofty tower. Astronomers were appointed by the state to take charge of these observatories, and to send in fortnightly reports to the king.

Here are specimens of them, the first of which is dated B.C. 649:-'To the king, my lord, thy servant Istar-iddin-pal, one of the chief astronomers of Arbela. May there be peace to the king, my lord, may Nebo, Merodach, and Istar of Arbela, be favourable to the king, my lord.

On the twenty-ninth day we kept a watch. The observatory was covered with cloud: the moon we did not see. (Dated) the month Sebat, the first day, the eponymy of Bel-kharran-Sadua.' 'To the king, my lord, thy servant Abil-Istar. May there be peace to the king, my lord. May Nebo and Merodach be propitious to the king, my lord. May the great G.o.ds grant unto the king, my lord, long days, soundness of body, and joy of heart. On the twenty-seventh day (of the month) the moon disappeared. On the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth days, we kept a watch for the eclipse of the sun. But the sun did not pa.s.s into eclipse. On the first day the moon was seen during the day. During the month Tammuz (June) it was above the planet Mercury, as I have already reported to the king. During the period when the moon is called Anu (_i.e._, from the first to the fifth days of the lunar month), it was seen declining in the orbit of Arcturus. Owing to the rain the horn was not visible.

Such is my report. During the period when the moon was Anu, I sent to the king, my lord, the following account of its conjunction:-It was stationary and visible below the star of the chariot. During the period when the moon is called Bel (_i.e._, from the tenth to the fifteenth day), it became full; to the star of the chariot it approached. Its conjunction (with the star) was prevented; but its conjunction with Mercury, during the period when it was Anu, of which I have already sent a report to the king, my lord, was not prevented. May the king, my lord, have peace!'

Astronomical observations imply a knowledge of mathematics, and in this the Babylonians and a.s.syrians seem to have excelled. Tables of squares and cubes have been found at Senkereh, the ancient Larsa, and a series of geometrical figures used for augural purposes presupposes a sort of Babylonian Euclid. The mathematical unit was 60, which was understood as a multiple when high numbers had to be expressed, IV, for example, standing for (4 60 =) 240. Similarly, 60 was the unwritten denominator of fractional numbers. The plan of an estate outside the gate of Zamama at Babylon, and belonging to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, has been discovered, while the famous Hanging Gardens of that city were watered by means of a screw.

Medicine also was in a more advanced state than might have been expected. Fragments of an old work on medicine have been found, which show that all known diseases had been cla.s.sified, and their symptoms described, the medical mixtures considered appropriate to each being compounded and prescribed quite in modern fas.h.i.+on. Here is one of them: 'For a diseased gall-bladder, which devours the top of a man's heart like a ring(?) ... within the sick (part), we prepare cypress-extract, goats' milk, palm-wine, barley, the flesh of an ox and bear, and the wine of the cellarer, in order that the sick man may live. Half an ephah of clear honey, half an ephah of cypress-extract, half an ephah of _gamgam_ herbs, half an ephah of linseed, half an ephah of ..., half an ephah of _imdi_ herbs, half an ephah of the seed of _tarrati_, half an ephah of calves' milk, half an ephah of _senu_ wood, half an ephah of _tik_ powder, half an ephah of the ... of the river-G.o.d, half an ephah of _usu_ wood, half an ephah of mountain medicine, half an ephah of the flesh(?) of a dove, half an ephah of the seed of the ..., half an ephah of the corn of the field, ten measures of the juice of a cut herb, ten measures of the tooth of the sea (sea-weed), one ephah of putrid flesh(?), one ephah of dates, one ephah of palm-wine and _insik_, and one ephah of the flesh(?) of the entrails; slice and cut up; or mix as a mixture, after first stirring it with a reed. On the fourth day observe (the sick man's) countenance. If it shows a white appearance his heart is cured; if it shows a dark appearance his heart is still devoured by the fire; if it shows a yellow appearance during the day, the patient's recovery is a.s.sured; if it shows a black appearance he will grow worse and will not live. For the swelling(?), slice (the flesh of) a cow which has entered the stall and has been slaughtered during the day. Seethe it in water and calves' milk. Drink the result in palm-wine. Drink it during the day.'

Generally, however, the prescriptions are not so elaborate as this. They are more usually of this nature: 'For low spirits, slice the root of the destiny tree, the root of the _susum_ tree, two or three other vegetable compounds, and the tongue of a dog. Drink the mixture either in water or in palm-wine.'

Even medical science, however, was invaded by superst.i.tion. In place of trying the doctor's prescription, a patient often had the choice allowed him of having recourse to charms and exorcisms. Thus the medical work itself permits him to 'place an incantation on the big toe of the left foot and cause it to remain' there, the incantation being as follows: 'O wind, my mother, wind, wind, the handmaid of the G.o.ds art thou; O wind among the storm-birds; yea, the water dost thou make stream down, and with the G.o.ds thy brothers liftest up the glory of thy wisdom.' At other times a witch or sorceress was called in, and told to 'bind a cord twice seven times, binding it on the sick man's neck and on his feet like fetters, and while he lies in his bed to pour pure water over him.'

Instead of the knotted cord verses from a sacred book might be employed, just as phylacteries were, and still are, among the Jews. Thus we read: 'In the night-time let a verse from a good tablet be placed on the head of the sick man in bed.' The word translated 'verse' is _masal_, the Hebrew _mashal_, which literally signifies a 'proverb' or 'parable.' It is curious to find the witch by the side of the wizard in Babylonia. 'The wise woman,' however, was held in great repute there, and just as the witches of Europe were supposed to fly through the air on a broomstick so it was believed that the witches of Babylonia could perform the same feat with the help of a wooden staff.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER V.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS; TRADE AND GOVERNMENT.

The monuments of a.s.syria do not give us the same a.s.sistance as those of Egypt in learning about the manners and customs of its inhabitants. We find there no tombs whose pictured walls set before us the daily life and doings of the people. We have to acquire our knowledge from the bas-reliefs of the royal palaces, which represent to us rather the pomp of the court and the conquest of foreign nations than scenes taken from ordinary a.s.syrian life. It is only incidentally that the manners and customs of the lower cla.s.ses are depicted. It is true that we can learn a good deal from the contract-tablets and other kinds of what may be called the private literature of Babylonia and a.s.syria. At present, however, but a small portion of these has been examined, and a literature can never paint so fully and distinctly the manners and customs of the day as the picture or sculpture on the wall. It is only in times comparatively modern that the novelist has sought to give a faithful portrait of the life of the peasant and artisan.

The dress of the upper cla.s.ses in a.s.syria did not differ essentially from that of the well-to-do Oriental of to-day. In time of peace the king was dressed in a robe which reached to the ankles, bound round the waist with a broad belt, while a mantle was thrown over his shoulders, and a tiara or fillet was worn on his head. The tiara sometimes resembled the triple tiara of the Pope, sometimes was of cone-like shape, and the fillet was furnished with two long bandelettes which fell down behind. The robe and mantle were alike richly embroidered and edged with fringes. The arms were left bare, except in so far as they could be covered by the mantle, and a heavy pair of bracelets encircled each, the workmans.h.i.+p of the jewelry being similar to that of the chain which was worn round the neck. The feet were shod with sandals which had a raised part behind to protect the heels, and they were fastened to the feet by a ring through which the great toe pa.s.sed, and a latchet over the instep. Sandals of precisely the same character are still used in Mesopotamia. The monarch's dress in war was similar to that used in time of peace, except that he carried a belt for daggers, while a fringed ap.r.o.n took the place of the mantle. Boots laced in front were also sometimes subst.i.tuted for the sandals.

The upper cla.s.ses, and more especially the officials about court, wore a costume similar to that of the king, only of course, less rich and costly. In all cases they were distinguished by the long fringed sleeveless robe which descended to the ankles. The dress of the soldiers and of the common people generally was quite different. It consisted only of the tunic, over which in all probability the long robe of the wealthy was worn, and which did not quite reach the knees. Sometimes a sort of jacket was put on above it, and, in a few instances, a simple kilt seems to take its place. The kilt was frequently worn under the tunic, which was fastened round the waist by a girdle or sword-belt. The arms, legs, and feet, were bare. Some of the soldiers, however, wore sandals, and others, more particularly the cavalry, wore boots, which were laced in front, and came half way up the leg. The upper part of the legs was occasionally protected by drawers of leather or chain-armour, and we even find tunics made of the same materials. Helmets were also employed, but the common soldier usually covered his head with a simple skull-cap.

The dress of the women consisted of a long tunic and mantle, and a fillet for confining the hair.

The king and his officers rode in chariots even when on a campaign. In crossing mountains the chariots often had to be carried on the shoulders of men or animals, their wheels being sometimes first taken off for the purpose. The chariot was large enough to contain not only the king but an umbrella-bearer and a charioteer as well. The latter held the reins in both hands, each rein being single and fastened to either side of a snaffle-like bit. When in the field the royal chariot was followed by a bow-bearer and a quiver-bearer, as well as by led horses, intended to a.s.sist the monarch to escape, should the fortune of battle turn against him. The chariot was drawn by two horses, a third horse being usually attached to it by a thong in order to take the place of one of the other two if an accident occurred.

[Ill.u.s.tration: a.s.sYRIAN KING IN HIS CHARIOT.]

Beside the chariots the army was accompanied by a corps of cavalry. In the time of the first a.s.syrian Empire the cavalry-soldier rode on the bare back of the horse, with his knees crouched up in front of him; subsequently saddles were introduced, though not stirrups.

The cavalry was divided into two corps-the heavy and the light-armed.

The latter were armed only with the bow and arrow and a guard for the wrist, and were chiefly employed in skirmis.h.i.+ng. Most of the archers, however, belonged to the infantry. The a.s.syrians were particularly skilled in the use of the bow, and their superiority in war was probably in great measure due to it. Besides the bow they employed the spear, the short dagger or dirk, and the sword, which was of two kinds. The ordinary kind was long and straight, the less usual kind being curved, like a scimetar. For defence, round s.h.i.+elds, of no great size, were carried.

Only the king and the chief n.o.bles were allowed the luxury of a tent.

The common soldier had to sleep on the ground, wrapped up in a blanket or plaid. The tent was probably of felt, and had an opening in the centre through which the smoke of a fire might escape. Not only, however, was a sleeping-tent carried for the king, a cooking-tent was carried also. So also was the royal chair, called a _nimedu_, on which the monarch sat when stationary in camp. The chair may be seen in the bas-relief, now in the British Museum, which represents Sennacherib sitting upon it in front of the captured town of Lachish. Above is a short inscription which tells us that 'Sennacherib, the king of legions, the king of a.s.syria, sat on an upright throne, and the spoil of the city of Lachish pa.s.sed before him.'

There were various means for a.s.saulting a hostile town. Sometimes scaling-ladders were used, sometimes the walls were undermined with crowbars and pickaxes; sometimes a battering-ram was employed armed with one or two spear-like projections; sometimes fire was applied to the enemy's gates. Other engines are mentioned in the inscriptions, but as they have not been found depicted on the monuments it is difficult to identify them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIEGE OF A CITY.]

The barbarities which followed the capture of a town would be almost incredible, were they not a subject of boast in the inscriptions which record them. a.s.sur-natsir-pal's cruelties were especially revolting.

Pyramids of human heads marked the path of the conqueror; boys and girls were burned alive or reserved for a worse fate; men were impaled, flayed alive, blinded, or deprived of their hands and feet, of their ears and noses, while the women and children were carried into slavery, the captured city plundered and reduced to ashes, and the trees in its neighbourhood cut down. During the second a.s.syrian Empire warfare was a little more humane, but the most horrible tortures were still exercised upon the vanquished. How deeply-seated was the thirst for blood and vengeance on an enemy is exemplified in a bas-relief which represents a.s.sur-bani-pal and his queen feasting in their garden while the head of the conquered Elamite king hangs from a tree above.

The a.s.syrians made use of chairs, tables, and couches. A piece of sculpture from Khorsabad introduces us to a scene in which the priests of the king are seated, two on a chair on either side of a four-legged table. Their sandals are removed, as was the custom among the Greeks when eating. In the luxurious days of a.s.sur-bani-pal the couch seems to have partially taken the place of the chair, since in the scene alluded to above the king is depicted reclining, though the queen sits in a chair by his side. The number of different kinds of food mentioned in the inscriptions seems to imply that the a.s.syrians were fond of good living. The common people, it is true, lived mostly on bread, fruit, and vegetables; but the monuments show us soldiers engaged in slaughtering and cooking oxen and sheep.

Wine was the usual beverage at a banquet, and the a.s.syrians appear to have resembled the Persians in their indulgence in it. Various sorts of wine are enumerated in the inscriptions, most of which were imported from abroad. Among the most highly prized was the wine of Khilbun or Helbon, which is mentioned in Ezek. xxvii. 18, and was grown near Damascus at a village still called Halbn. Besides grape-wine, palm-wine, made from dates, was brought from Babylon, and beer, milk, cream, b.u.t.ter or ghee, and oil, were all much used. At a feast the wine was ladled out of a large vase into cups, which were then presented to the guests.

The table was ornamented with flowers, and musicians were hired to amuse the banqueters. No less than seven or eight different musical instruments were known, among them the harp, the lyre, and the tambourine. The lyre seems to have been specially employed at feasts, and the harp for the performance of sacred music. The instrumental music was at times accompanied by the voice, and bands of musicians celebrated the triumphant return of the king from war.

Polygamy was permitted-at all events to the monarch-and the palace was accordingly guarded by a whole army of eunuchs. They were generally in attendance on the sovereign, like the scribes whose offices were continually needed in both peace and war. Another attendant must not be forgotten-the servant who stood behind the king armed with a fly-flap, and was almost a necessity in hot weather. Considering the number of captives carried away every year to a.s.syria in the successful campaigns of its rulers, slaves must have been very plentiful in Nineveh. Indeed, after the Arabian campaign of a.s.sur-bani-pal we are told that a camel was sold for half a shekel of silver, and that a man was worth a correspondingly small sum.

Next to hunting men the chief employment and delight of an a.s.syrian king was to hunt wild beasts. Tiglath-Pileser I had hunted elephants in the land of the Hitt.i.tes, as the Egyptian Pharaohs had done before him; subsequently the extinction of the elephant in Western Asia caused his successors to content themselves with lesser game. The reem or wild bull and the lion became their favourite sport, smaller animals like the gazelle, the hare, and the wild a.s.s being left to their subjects to pursue. It was not until the reign of a.s.sur-bani-pal that the lion-hunt ceased to be a dangerous and exciting pastime. With Esar-haddon, however, the old race of warrior kings had come to an end, and the new king introduced a new style of sport. The lions were now caught and kept in cages, until they were turned out for a royal _battue_. As they had to be whipped into activity, neither the monarch nor his companions could have run much risk of being harmed.

The a.s.syrians were not an agricultural people like the Babylonians.

Nevertheless, the kings had their paradises or parks, and the wealthier cla.s.ses their gardens or shrubberies. The garden was planted with trees rather than with flowers or herbs, and afforded a shady retreat during the summer months. Tiglath-Pileser I had even established a sort of botanical garden, in which he tried to acclimatise some of the trees he had met with in his campaigns. He tells us of it: 'As for the cedar, the _likkarin_ tree, and the almug, from the countries I have conquered, these trees, which none of the kings my fathers that were before me had planted, I took, and in the gardens of my land I planted, and by the name of garden I called them; whatsoever in my land there was not I took, and I established the gardens of a.s.syria.' The gardens were abundantly watered from the river or ca.n.a.l, by the side of which they were usually planted. Summer-houses were built in the midst of them, and as early as the time of Sennacherib we meet with a 'hanging garden,'

grown on the roof of a building.