CHAPTER LIX. 
HUNTING SCENES. 
Certain cylinders with hunting scenes are surely Persian, one example being 
that of Darius, fig. 1104; of others we can not be positive. For such a vigor- 
ous cylinder, lacking all Assyrian conventionality, see fig. 597. The student may 
equally be inclined to assign some of them to the region of the Armenians. It 
will be helpful to learn from geologists from what region the stone comes of which 
they are cut; for some of them are like similar military cylinders, of peculiar 
mottled jasper, such as we do not find in the Babylonian and Assyrian seals. 
As might naturally be expected, the dress of hunters is much simpler than 
that of men in their dignified garments of peace. They are usually short, and 
fastened with a girdle, such as we have seen in fig. 1059 of the scenes of war. There 
are about these designs a vigor and life which are unusual and suggest a less con- 
ventional art than we find prevailing in ordinary religious scenes. 





Ces 

Ey h 
MN ; 
ee er LY 
1067 

WO 
Zz su 
1066 

1065 
But there can be no question that fig. 1063 is Persian, and the figure of the 
hunter is conventional and lifeless enough. He stands motionless, in his long 
trousers, with his spear held upright before him and his bow and quiver on his 
shoulders, while a wild boar, quite vigorously drawn, rushes at him. But if he does 
not protect himself he is protected by the supreme deity, for the winged disk of 
Ahura-mazda, in the extended Persian style, is before him. Very close to this is 
fig. 1064, where the hunter is accompanied by a dog. 
Equally, fig. 1065 is certainly Persian. ‘The figure to the left wears the Persian 
crown, jacket, and lower garment, and in the conventional way he lifts a reversed 
lion with one hand, while the other holds the short sword. But the other figure is 
330 
