259 
at the gates of a palace (at Kaleh Shergat, as I believe) two 
Nakhirin, along with six bulls of stone, and other objects of 
different kinds of stone. It would seem from this that it was 
not stone representations of these sea monsters which he set 
up, but the skeletons of the actual animals; for it is scarcely 
credible that their skins were preserved. Now what cetaceous 
animal, or fish, could be found in the Levant, which would 
satisfy these statements ? 
‘¢ The other animal to which I wish to draw attention is 
one which is very frequently mentioned ; and I am inclined to 
identify it with the reem of the Bible, and to suppose that it 
represents a species which does not now exist. At any rate, 
I think it cannot have been any of the animals which are now 
living in Syria. 
‘<The name is composed of two characters, which it would 
be most natural to read amts?. I, however, distrust this read- 
ing, and suspect that one of the characters, or the combination 
of the two, had some different value, which may perhaps be 
learned from a tablet. 
*« These animals are repeatedly named in the inscriptions, 
where the tributes of the different nations are mentioned. 
Their teeth or tusks (as I interpret the word which generally 
precedes them, and which is also used of the nakhir) were 
given by many people, and especially by those in Syria. 
Among the spoils which Esarhaddon took from the King of 
Sidon, he mentions skins of amtsi as well as teeth of amtsi. 
These teeth were also used in ornamenting chariots and other 
objects, and a kind of wood is mentioned which was used along 
with them for this purpose. Looking to similar passages in the 
Egyptian inscriptions, it is natural to translate these terms by 
‘ivory and ebony.’ These animals, whatever they were, 
lived in Syria, as appears not only from their skins and teeth 
being given in tribute from the countries there, but because 
the King of Assyria is mentioned as killing them there. After 
the account of his killing the nakhir in the great sea, and the 
