xvi INTRODUCTION. 



to the occasion, and he thrust a storm-wind down 

 the monster's throat ; the monster burst asunder, 

 while her alHes fled in terror before the victorious 

 deity." Where will you meet with such a delight- 

 ful bit of imagery as this ? Fancy a storm-wind 

 being thrust into a monster's throat and bursting 

 it into fragments! It is no wonder her allies fled 

 in terror ; it was like dynamite ! 



No one but a genius could have invented such 

 a weapon as that. 



It appears to me that too scholastic a view may 

 be taken of the whole Assyrian people, and their 

 social atmosphere, as if we were not a continuation 

 of thcju, but they an entirely different set of beings 

 from all the rest of the human race. 



We hear it said that what we want is more 

 'scholars.' Is it not possible, however, that scholars 

 alone will take only a scholarly view of the people's 

 life, as has been done of the life of the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans, and so only obtain a one- 

 sided view ? We have to try and place ourselves 

 mentally in their times, and not look at everything 

 through the scholar's spectacles. 



I think there has been far too much ' spirituality ' 

 attributed to those blood-thirsty realistic oppressors 

 of humanity. For instance, Perrot et Chipiez, in 

 their ' History of the Art of Chaldea and Assyria,' 

 give on p. 194, vol. i, what they call a tabernacle 

 from the Balawat Gates, British Museum. 



