3. he sailed, and he slew a mighty dolphin in the sea.[945]
Then follows a catalogue raisonné of his famous Zoo, in which were collected the elephants, lions, mountain-goats, stags, dromedaries, which he captured himself or obtained (antedating Hagenbeck) “through merchants whom he had sent out,” and other numerous “wild beasts and fowl of the Heaven that fly, the work of his hands, their names together with (the number of) the beasts which my ( ) did not record ... have I recorded.” In addition to these, of which “he caused their herds to bring forth young,” we find—
29. “A great pagûtu, a crocodile, a hippopotamus (?), and beasts of the Great Sea,
30. the king of Musrê sent unto him and caused the people of his land to behold.”
We cannot determine what one of the subjects of this gift, “a great pagûtu,“ exactly was. Tum-su-hu may possibly be the equivalent of the Egyptian emsah, Arabic timsâh, i.e. a crocodile. If so, Musrê must indicate Egypt.[946]
The Annals of Aṣur-Nasirpal form our second document of knowledge. The walls of his palace, lined with sculptures in relief, represent his exploits in the field of battle and in the chase. Details are most carefully and elaborately carved; the designs mark the acme of Assyrian art.
In Column III. he records[947]
“Some men I took alive and impaled them on stakes over against their cities.[948]
At that time I marched into the district of Lebanon, and unto the Great Sea.
In the Great Sea I washed my weapons and I made offering unto the gods.