[Illustration:  034.jpg THE URUS IN ACT OF CHARGING]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from
     Nimrud (Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, 1st series, pi. 11).

[Illustration:  035.jpg a herd of onagers pursued by dogs and wounded by arrows.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the British
     Museum.

The elephant seems to have roamed for some time over the steppes of the middle Euphrates;* there is no indication of its presence after the XIIIth century before our era, and from that time forward it was merely an object of curiosity brought at great expense from distant countries.  This is not the only instance of animals which have disappeared in the course of centuries; the rulers of Nineveh were so addicted to the pursuit of the urus that they ended by exterminating it.  Several sorts of panthers and smaller felidae had their lairs in the thickets of Mesopotamia.  The wild ass and onager roamed in small herds between the Balikh and the Tigris.  Attempts were made, it would seem, at a very early period to tame them and make use of them to draw chariots; but this attempt either did not succeed at all, or issued in such uncertain results, that it was given up as soon as other less refractory animals were made the subjects of successful experiment.

     * The existence of the elephant in Mesopotamia and Northern
     Syria is well established by the Egyptian inscription of
     Amenemhabi in the XVth century before our era.

[Illustration:  036.jpg THE CHIEF DOMESTIC ANIMALS OP THE REGIONS OF THE EUPHRATES.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Assyrian bas-relief from
     Kouyunjik.

The wild boar, and his relative, the domestic hog, inhabited the morasses.  Assyrian sculptors amused themselves sometimes by representing long gaunt sows making their way through the cane-brakes, followed by their interminable offspring.  The hog remained here, as in Egypt, in a semi-tamed condition, and the people were possessed of only a small number of domesticated animals besides the dog—­namely, the ass, ox, goat, and sheep; the horse and camel were at first unknown, and were introduced at a later period.*

[Illustration:  037.jpg THE SOW AND HER LITTER MAKING THEIR WAY THROUGH A BED OF REEDS.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Kouyunjik.

* The horse is denoted in the Assyrian texts by a group of signs which mean “the ass of the East,” and the camel by other signs in which the character for “ass” also appears.  The methods of rendering these two names show that the subjects of them were unknown in the earliest times; the epoch of their introduction is uncertain.  A chariot drawn by horses appears on the “Stele of the Vultures.”  Camels are mentioned among the booty obtained from the Bedouin of the desert.

We know nothing of the efforts which the first inhabitants—­Sumerians