July 28, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
131 
NO. I. PART OF A LION HUNT. FROM A BAS-RELIEF FROM NINEVEH. 
grandee who is in the act of shooting an arrow 
at a great drove of horses or ponies. This 
subject is one of the most effective in design 
and excellent in execution, but portions are 
destroyed. There remain a remarkable smoke- 
blackened fragment of a pack of hounds tearing 
their prey to pieces, and a little group, which is 
among our illustrations (No. 4), showing the 
capture of one of the animals in a noose, proving 
that mere slaughter was not the only object of 
the chase. 
The Egyptians of all times, ranks, and castes, 
from motives of duty or amusement, were de¬ 
voted to all forms of sport, in which they used 
weapons similar to those of the Assyrians, but 
apparently had a greater variety of means of 
attaining their prey. Besides the use of nets 
near a sepulchral stele; and at least two hunting 
scenes formed part of the sculptured frieze of 
the order of the Nereid Monument at Xanthos, 
in Lycia. One is frightfully mutilated; the other, 
also much broken, is a bear hunt (No. 8), an 
unusual subject in art. The bear is at bay, 
standing on its hind legs before a dog. Four 
huntsmen on horseback arrive with two other 
dogs and a couple of attendants on foot, one 
carrying a slain stag thrown over his shoulder. 
But judging by the mythic traditions, care for 
the public welfare was a higher motive to the 
Greeks in their pursuit of wild beasts than that 
of mere pleasure. Though the giver of the com¬ 
mand or commission which sent heroes like 
Theseus and Herakles to rid the land of raven¬ 
ing beasts and monsters might be a cowardly, 
NO. 3. STAG HUNT. FROM A BAS-RELIEF FROM NI NEVEH. 
drawings of the Japanese Popular School. 
A favorite subject was the “Hunt of the Kal- 
ydonian Boar,” which the goddess Artemis had 
sent to devastate the fields of the Hitolians, be¬ 
cause A£neus, the king of Kalydon, had ne¬ 
glected to offer sacrifice to her. But the days 
passed till one came when Meleager, the king’s 
son, had arrived at manhood, and he sent mes¬ 
sengers to invite every valiant prince whose 
fame had spread beyond his own land to join 
him in the hunt. Theseus of Athens, Admetos 
of Pherae, Ankeos, and the beautiful, swift¬ 
footed Atalanta of Arcadia, Kastor and Poly- 
deukes of Lakedaemon, Jason of Iolkos, Peleus 
of Thessaly, and many other heroes came, and 
after feasting for nine days, set out on the 
dangerous expedition. Atalanta was the first 
to wound the boar, so when Meleager finally 
slew it, he presented her with the head, keep¬ 
ing the skin as a trophy for himself. In the 
British Museum there is a fine crater, or mixing- 
bowl, from the Pourtales Collection, one side 
of which is decorated with the final scene of the 
hunt. Meleager, armed with shield and helmet, 
with his right knee on the ground, prepares to 
give the death thrust in the mouth to the boar 
as it rushes towards him, while a little white dog 
bites its left side. A few trees, which have been 
recently lopped and are sprouting, indicate the 
nature of the district. I11 the centre of the com¬ 
position, behind the boar, is a youth wearing 
buskins and a short cloak, running, and about 
to hurl a mass of rock, three others being more 
distant with shields, spear and daggers; all the 
figures appearing graceful and spirited.— L. 
Beatrice Thompson in the Art Journal. 
Ring in a Nest. 
A lost diamond ring came to light at the Man¬ 
hattan Beach Hotel last night in a remarkable 
NO. 4. PART OF HUNTING SCENE. FROM ASSUR- 
BANI-PAL’s PALACE AT NINEVEH. 
for inclosing extensive spaces of ground, the 
noose, snares, traps, throw-sticks, throwing 
spears, bows and arrows, and several breeds of 
dogs, they hunted also with tamed lions, which 
pursued the larger or swifter animals, such as 
deer, ibex, and antelope, being trained for hunt¬ 
ing like the Indian cheetah. On fowling expe¬ 
ditions among the marshes, a decoy duck with 
nest and eggs was placed in the bows of the 
papyrus punt, which glided noiselessly among 
the rushes and tall water plants, or a cat took 
its place there to act as a retriever. The range 
of animals also seems to have been greater, for 
in addition to the lion, which was snared upon 
the mountains, the crocodile and hippopotamus 
which were peculiar to certain localities, they 
hunted the ostrich for the sake of its plumes, 
the gazelle, wild goat or ibex, oryx, wild ox, 
stag, kebsh or wild sheep, hare and porcupine 
for the table, and the fox, jackal, wolf, hyiena, 
and leopard for amusement. 
The noble craft of hunting doubtless appealed 
as much to the Greeks as to most European 
nations. That it was frequently practiced as a 
simple amusement is suggested by an Athenian 
lekythos (oil-bottle, D. 60) of the fifth or fourth 
century, B. C., in the Third Vase Room at the 
British Museum, which is decorated with two 
youths hunting a hare with a sharp-nosed dog 
despicable tyrant, yet the deed that was done 
tended to the preservation of the lives and prop¬ 
erty of many of their fellow-countrymen, and 
it is not unnatural to find a record of such tales 
preponderate over ordinary hunting scenes in 
the art of ancient Greece. 
Greek art of the best period gave an air of 
majestic repose to sculpture, relegating a cer¬ 
tain idea of generally, deliberate movement to 
bas-reliefs; but this is far from being the case 
with the paintings on the terra-cotta vases, 
where we see tragedies and comedies, battles, 
wrestling matches, races, hunts, scenes from 
private life and from mythology, and even from 
farces, in which the grotesque actors resemble 
manner. George H. Primrose, the minstrel, had 
just finished a song and a dance in the theater 
on the boardwalk when a swallow’s nest loosened 
from the rafters and fell into the box occupied 
by Mrs. Primrose, Mrs. West, and Peter F. 
Daily, the comedian. Something bright sparkled. 
It was a ring set with three white diamonds and 
a colored stone. “Ethel” was engraved inside 
the gold band. 
The owners of the nest are supposed to have 
found the ring, and, attracted by its glitter, 
carried it to their home. The ring was left with 
Mr. Silleck, proprietor of the hotel. The owner 
can obtain it by applying to him.—New York 
Times. 
NO. 5. CHASE OF WILD GOATS. FROM A BAS-RELIEF FROM NINEVEH. 
