126 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
and by the banks of the Chabur, i.e., somewhere between 
the Tigris and Euphrates, a district which was doubtless 
well wooded and watered, suitable for the abode of elephants. 
Perhaps Dr. Lotz is correct in referring both ka and 
ca amsi to the product of the elephant, and ivory is intended, 
but that the horns of the rimu, or wild bull, were also 
used and prized by the Assyrians can admit of no doubt. 
Horn is a substance which is now, and always has been, 
valued; it is capable, like ivory, of being wrought into 
various useful articles, such as drinking cups, trumpets, lan- 
terns, &c, or for inlaying wood and other materials. Both 
the skins and horns of the am or rimu, which animals the 
Assyrians killed, and depicted on the monuments, are fre- 
quently mentioned as being of sufficient value to carry home 
to Nineveh. Pliny ("Nat. Hist.," XVI, 43) tells us in his 
chapter on veneering ("De Lignis Sectilibus"), that the horns 
of animals were often stained with various colours, and cut into 
sections for decorating wood, as well as ivory, and that, " later 
mankind sought materials from the sea, and tortoise-shell" 
(testudo) " was used." Homer ("Odys.," xix, 563) speaks of 
doors (irvXat) made of polished horn (^earcov icepdwv), through 
which true dreams came, while the dreams which came 
through the sawn ivory (Bia irpLarov iXecfravros) proved 
false. This is a sufficient reply to Dr. Oppert (" Rec. Past." 
p. 34, note), who says that the ka amsi cannot possibly be 
bull's horn, because such a material " could never occupy a 
prominent place in the construction of palaces." When we 
read of "ivory palaces," which ancient monarchs erected, 
whether in Assyria or in Judaea, one can only understand by 
the expression that ivory was extensively used for decorating 
purposes. Ivory, being a hard and enduring substance, has 
survived to tell the story of its value in the articles that have 
been brought to light from the excavations at Koyunjik ; 
horn, whether in the substance of bull's horn, tortoise-shell, 
claws, nails, whalebone, &c, having a composition inter- 
mediate between albumen and gelatine, and containing very 
small quantities of earthy matter, is perishable, and cannot 
exist as a long-buried material to tell the story of its uses, 
which, as I have said, are known to be manifold and various. 
