Chapter 3　Cherubs and Kings

Can you speak Assyrian?What's that you say?Of course not?But you know one word of Assyrian, I'm sure, even though you may have forgotten the country. Assyria is as old a civilization as Egypt is, and it's a thousand miles to the east of Egypt.The Assyrian word I think you know is cherub.

Today an angel head with wings is known as a cherub. Sometimes a sweet baby is also called a cherub.But an Assyrian cherub is neither.It's a fairy-tale animal-either a lion or a bull with a man's head and an eagle's wings.Sometimes the word genie-like the kind that might suddenly appear and ask you for three wishes when you rub a magic lamp-is used to mean the Assyrian type of cherub.

In Assyria cherubs or genies were made out of alabaster, which is a kind of stone that is usually white and softer than most of the stone the Egyptians had.

The Egyptian sphinx was a man-headed lion lying down. The Assyrian cherub was a man-headed lion standing up.The illustration shows an Assyrian cherub.Notice how carefully and tightly the hair and beard are curled.

Here is an easy puzzle. What's wrong with this cherub?He has five legs！The sculptors knew, of course, that a bull had only four legs, but they made him with five legs so that a