these, eleven are players on instruments, while the remaining fifteen are vocalists.  The instruments consist of seven harps, two double pipes, a small drum or tubbel, and the curious instrument which has been compared to the modern santour.  The players are all men, six out of the eleven being eunuchs.  The singers consist of six women and nine children of various ages, the latter of whom seem to accompany their singing, as the Hebrews and Egyptians sometimes did, with clapping of the hands.  Three out of the first four musicians are represented with one leg raised, as if dancing to the measure. [PLATE CXXXII., Fig.  I.]

[Illustration:  PLATE 132]

Bands in Assyria had sometimes, though not always, time-keepers or leaders, who took the direction of the performance.  These were commonly eunuchs, as indeed were the greater number of the musicians.  They held in one hand a double rod or wand, with which most probably they made their signals, and stood side by side facing the performers. [PLATE CXXXII., Fig. 2.]

The Assyrians seem to have employed music chiefly for festive and religious purposes.  The favorite instrument in the religious ceremonies was the antique harp, which continued in use as a sacred instrument from the earliest to the latest times.  On festive occasions the lyre was preferred, or a mixed band with a variety of instruments.  In the quiet of domestic life the monarch and his sultana were entertained with concerted music played by a large number of performers:  while in processions and pageants, whether of a civil or of a military character, bands were also very generally employed, consisting of two, three, four, five, or possibly more, musicians.  Cymbals, the tambourine, and the instrument which has been above regarded as a sort of rattle, were peculiar to these processional occasions:  the harp, the lyre, and the double pipe had likewise a place in them.

In actual war, it would appear that music was employed very sparingly, if at all, by the Assyrians.  No musicians are ever represented in the battle-scenes:  nor are the troops accompanied by any when upon the march.  Musicians are only seen conjoined with troops in one or two marching processions, apparently of a triumphal character.  It may consequently be doubted whether the Assyrian armies, when they went out on their expeditions, were attended, like the Egyptian and Roman armies, by military bands.  Possibly, the musicians in the processional scenes alluded to belong to the court rather than to the camp, and merely take part as civilians in a pageant, wherein a share is also assigned to the soldiery.