CHAPTER XXXV 



FISH — VIVARIA— THE FIRST INSTANCE OF POACHING 



We find in two important sources of our knowledge of Assyria 

 (proper) references to beasts or fishes of the sea and of the river. 

 The first occurs in The Broken Column of Tiglath-Pileser L, 

 in whose reign Assyria attained to high prosperity. This king, 

 the first of that country to leave behind a detailed record of his 

 achievements, was, as we have seen, a mighty hunter. After 

 recounting his many military campaigns he adds in Column 

 IV. a list of the beasts and fish which he had taken in his hunting 

 expeditions. The text runs : — 



1. The gods Ninurta and Nergal, who loved his priesthood, 



(the task) of hunting in the field, 



2. Entrusted unto him, and in ships of the land of Arvad 



3. he sailed, and he slew a mighty dolphin in the sea.^ 



Then follows a catalogue raisonne of his famous Zoo, in which 

 were collected the elephants, lions, mountain-goats, stags, 

 dromedaries, which he captured himself or obtained (antedating 

 Hagenbeck) " through merchants whom he had sent out," 

 and other numerous " wild beasts and fowl of the Heaven 

 that fly, the work of his hands, their names together with 

 (the number of) the beasts which my ( ) did not 



record . . . have I recorded." In addition to these, of 



* Annals of the Kings of Assyria, by Budge and King (1903), p. 13S. 

 ' Dolphin ' is the translation of Nakhiri, doubtless from the same root, which 

 in Arabic is Nakhara, to spout, and occurs in the same sense in Syriac and 

 Ethiopic. In view of the evidence of Pliny and other authors as to the former 

 existence of the whale in the Mediterranean, I suggested to Professor King 

 an alternative rendering of nakhiri as ' whale,' and he informed me he accepts 

 my suggestion as the more probable of the two. 



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