I 4 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



different habits from their present-day relatives, because it is 

 not the habit of pursued deer to hold up the neck but to carry 

 it horizontally at such times, so that the back-to-throat arrow 

 would be possible only from above. 



It is less difficult to believe the writing in the Master of the 

 Game and its French original than to believe the pictures with 

 which the latter was adorned probably long afterwards, by 

 someone who had not the authority of the author. 



Artists were not then sportsmen, but in Assyria they 

 obviously were so. In the British Museum room devoted to 

 that ancient kingdom, in low relief may be seen much that is 

 looked for in vain in the technically superior sculpture of the 

 classic periods of Greece and Rome. That is to say, the 

 actual feelings and characters of the beasts are conveyed in 

 the outlines. The horses were obviously of precisely the same 

 character as the arabs and thoroughbreds of to-day. They are 

 not obstinate brutes, little better than mules, like the ponies 

 of the Parthenon, which all lay back their ears at their masters, 

 but, on the contrary, the Assyrians are generous, high-spirited 

 beasts that fight with their masters, pursue in spirit with them, 

 and fight with ears laid back only when they are face to face with 

 a lion, and going to meet him. The artists saw it all, or they 

 would have blundered in the expression of the horse, which is 

 mostly in his ears, but they never blundered. Surely this was the 

 first shooting recorded, and whether it was done by bow and arrow 

 or by hurling the dart matters nothing. It is the most ancient and 

 the most authentic of all the ancient records of sport. If it were 

 untrue, it would be the most contemptible, because the most 

 flattering art. But it bears internal evidence of its own truth, and 

 that the country of Nimrod produced mighty hunters, for which 

 there is also Biblical evidence ; no race or nation of sportsmen 

 has since been able to boast similar sportsmanship. For man 

 and horse to face a charging lion and kill him with a spear, 

 or dart, is to place sportsmanship before human life; and even 

 David, who killed a lion and a bear, did not do that, but 

 merely defended his flocks, probably in the only way open to 

 him. He was a mighty shepherd and a mighty king, but 



