43 6 



NA TURE 



[March j2, 1903 



I added it to the borders of my land. Tiglath-pileser, 

 the mighty king, the snare of the disobedient, who 

 overwhelmeth the resistance of the wicked ! With the 

 exalted might of Ashur my lord against the land of 

 Kharia and the wide-spread troops of the Kurte, over 

 lofty hills which no king had ever reached, Ashur, my 

 lord, commanded that I should march. My chariots 

 and my host I gathered together, and between the 

 mountains of Idni and Aia, a difficult region, I took my 

 way. Among high mountains which were sharp 

 as the point of a dagger, and which were impassable 

 for my chariots, the chariots I left idle, and the steep 

 mountains I traversed on foot. The whole of the Kurte 

 had assembled their wide-spread troops ... in the 

 mountain . . . with them I fought and I defeated 

 them ; the dead bodies of the warriors on the high places 

 of the mountain I piled up in heaps, and the blood of 

 their warriors in the valleys and on the heights of the 

 mountains I caused to flow. . . . The people of the 

 land of Adaush feared the mighty advance of my battle- 

 array, and they deserted their territory and to the tops 

 of the lofty mountains like birds they fled. 

 Their fighting men on the peaks of the mountain I 

 piled up in heaps, with the blood of their warriors the 

 mountain of Khirikha I dyed red like scarlet wool. 

 Tiglath-pileser, the burning flame, the Terrible One, 

 the storm of battle (am I) ! " (p. 72). 



Such is an Assyrian war-chronicle. Its fierce energv 

 is no pretence. Nor can we wonder that this virile 

 people were the masters of Western Asia in their time. 

 This inscription dates to the dawn of their hegemony, 

 when they were just beginning to strike the terror of 

 them into the hearts of the kings of the earth. Most 

 of the other inscriptions in this volume are of the same 

 type. 



"The soldiers escaped," says Ashur-nasir-pal (b.c. 

 SS5-S60), " and occupied a steep mountain; the moun- 

 tain was exceeding steep, and after them I did not go. 

 The peak of the mountain rose like the point of an iron 

 dagger, and no bird of heaven that flieth reacheth 

 thereto. Like the nest of a vulture within the moun- 

 tain was set their stronghold, into which none of the 

 kings my fathers had penetrated. In three days the 

 warrior overcame the mountain ; his stout heart pressed 

 on to battle; he climbed up on his feet, he cast down 

 the mountain, he destroyed their nest, their host he 

 shattered " (pp. 270, 271). 



Always the same forcible and picturesque diction, 

 which is well reproduced by the translator. 



But the Assyrian monarch was not only a destroyer; 

 he could build up as well as cast down. 



"The palaces, the royal dwellings," ■ says Tig- 

 lath-pileser (p. SS), " in the great cities of "the pro- 

 vinces of my land, which from the time of my 

 fathers during the course of many years had been 

 deserted, and had decayed, and had fallen into 

 rums, I have rebuilt and restored. The walls of the 

 cities of my land which were in ruins I have 

 strengthened. The engines for watering the fields 

 throughout the whole of Assyria I have repaired, and 

 stores of grain in greater quantities than those of my 

 fathers I have increased and heaped up. . . ". 

 Cedars and urkarinu-trees, and allakanish-trees, in the 

 countries which I have conquered, such trees the like 

 of which among the kings mv fathers of old time none 

 had ever planted, I took, and in the gardens of mv 

 land I have planted them. And rare garden-fruits' 

 which were not found within my land, I took, and in the 

 gardens of Assyria I have caused them to flourish 

 Chariots and teams of horses, that mv land might be 

 strong, more than formerly, I have increased and I have 

 NO. I 74 1, VOL. 67] 



strengthened. Unto the land of Assyria I have added 

 land and unto her peoples, peoples." 



These extracts will serve to give some idea of the ex- 

 tremely interesting character of these " Annals of the 

 Kings of Assyria." The present volume contains in- 

 scriptions dating from the early period to the reign of 

 Ashur-nasir-pal (b.c 885-860). It is evident that many 

 more volumes of the same size and scope as that which 

 lies before us will have to be published before the editors 

 come to the end of the rich material which lies ready to 

 their hand. For Assyrian history covers another two 

 centuries and a half, occupied by a continuous record 

 of wars, conquests, city and palace building, &c, often 

 containing information of the greatest possible use to 

 the historian. 



Isolated matters of interest often crop up in the course 

 of the narrative. Thus we read that Tiglath-pileser I., 

 one of the first of Assyrian kings to reach the 

 Mediterranean, went for a pleasure trip in a Phoenician 

 ship from Arvad, and slew a mighty dolphin in the 

 course of his sail. To the same king the contemporary 

 monarch of Egypt, who must have been one of the im- 

 mediate successors of Rameses III., of the twentieth 

 dynasty, sent a crocodile as a present, and also a great 

 pagutu, whatever that may have been; perhaps it was 

 a hippopotamus. We may wonder what condition the 

 unlucky animals were in by the time they reached 

 Assyria ! They were evidently regarded as very re- 

 markable creatures, as we can see from the care with 

 which their arrival is recorded. 



The sketch of Assyrian history which precedes the 

 texts is extremely well written, and gives the reader a 

 very good idea of the rise of the famous kingdom on the 

 Tigris. 



In conclusion, we must again congratulate the 

 Trustees of the British Museum on their decision to 

 undertake the publication of these important national 

 treasures, and the editors, also, on the excellence of 

 their work. 



TRUSTWORTHY REAGENTS. 

 The Testing of Chemical Reagents for Purity. By Dr. 



C. Krauch. Third Edition. Authorised translation 



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 f~* A VEAT EMPTOR is a good maxim, if a somewhat 

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