According to Herodotus, the kinds of grain cultivated in Assyria in his time were wheat, barley, sesame, and millet.  As these still constitute at the present day the principal agricultural products of the county, we may conclude that they were in all probability the chief species cultivated under the Empire.  The plough used, if we may judge by the single representation of it which has come down to us, was of a rude and primitive construction—­a construction, however, which will bear comparison with that of the implements to this day in use through modern Turkey and Persia.  Of other agricultural implements we have no specimens at all, unless the square instrument with a small circle or wheel at each corner, which appears on the same monument as the plough, may be regarded as intended for some farming purpose. [PLATE CXXXIV., Fig. 2.]

Besides grain, it seems certain that the Assyrians cultivated the vine.  The vine will grow well in many parts of Assyria; and the monuments represent vines, with a great deal of truth, not merely as growing in the countries to which the Assyrians made their expeditions, but as cultivated along the sides of the rivers near Nineveh, and in the gardens belonging to the palaces of the kings.  In the former case they appear to grow without any support, and are seen in orchards intermixed with other fruit-trees, as pomegranates and figs.  In the latter they are trained upon tall trees resembling firs, round whose stems they twine themselves, and from which their rich clusters droop.  Sometimes the long lithe boughs pass across from tree to tree, forming a canopy under which the monarch and his consort sip their wine.

Before concluding this chapter, a few remarks will be added upon the ordinary private life of the Assyrians, so far as the monuments reveal it to us.  Under this head will be included their dress, their food, their houses, furniture, utensils, carriages, etc., their various kinds of labor, and the implements of labor which were known to them.

The ordinary dress of the common people in Assyria was a mere plain tunic, or skirt, reaching from the neck to a little above the knee, with very short sleeves, and confined round the waist by a broad belt or girdle.  Nothing was worn either upon the head or upon the feet.  The thick hair, carried in large waves from the forehead to the back of the head, and then carefully arranged in three, four, or five rows of stiff curls, was regarded as a sufficient protection both from sun and rain.  No head-covering was ever worn, except by soldiers, and by certain officials, as the king, priests, and musicians.  Sometimes, if the hair was very luxuriant, it was confined by a band or fillet, which was generally tied behind the back of the head.  The beard was worn long, and arranged with great care, the elaboration being pretty nearly the same in the case of the king and of the common laborer.  Laborers of a rank a little above the lowest wore sandals, indulged in a fringed tunic, and occasionally in a phillibeg, while a still higher class had a fringed tunic and phillibeg, together with the close-fitting trouser and boot worn by soldiers.  These last are frequently eunuchs, who probably belonged to a corps of eunuch laborers in the employ of the king.