PREFACE. vii 



In studying Oriental subjects, connected with 

 extinct communities, we may be apt to look upon 

 what we are studying as the result of the general 

 culture of that country ; but it is evident that the 

 culture and mode of expression may be only of 

 the individual, who originated that thing we now 

 call a relic. Of course I understand that this 

 individual's brain may have stored in it the current 

 impressions of the social atmosphere of that time. 



An intricate and obscure study, such as that of 

 diving into the thoughts, characters, and mode 

 of civilization of the ancient Assyrians, can be 

 attacked in many ways, and the more varied the 

 attacks, the more we are likely to reach approximate 

 truth. 



The deciphering of inscriptions will give us dates 

 and written records, as far as they go ; but this 

 subject can be attacked anthropologically, zoolo- 

 gically, botanically, etymologically, astronomically, 

 etc. What we have to keep in mind, as Prof. Sayce 

 reminded us, is to use in our investigations a 'liberal 

 amount of common sense,' and to consider that what 

 is nonsense in English, French, or German, would 

 be equally nonsense in Assyrian. 



To have horns on one's head, like those Assyrian 

 divinities, may be ornamental ; but to have horns 

 on the brain, morning, noon, and night for a 

 twelvemonth, is neither ornamental nor pleasant. 

 Yet how can one hope to solve certain obscure 



