The Aurochs is wild and shy; it dislikes the neighborhood of man, and has retired before him till it is now found only in the forests of Lithuania, Carpathia, and the Caucasus.

It seems nearly certain that, in the time of the later kings, the species of wild cattle previously limited, whatever it was, had disappeared from Assyria altogether; at least this is the only probable account that can be given of its non-occurrence in the later sculptures, more especially in those of Asshur-bani-pal, the son of Esarhaddon, which seem intended to represent the chase under every aspect known at the time.

We might therefore presume it to have been, even in the early period, already a somewhat rare animal.

And so we find in the Inscriptions that the animal, or animals, which appear to represent wild cattle, were only met with in outlying districts of the empire--on the borders of Syria and in the country about Harrah; and then in such small numbers as to imply that even there they were not very abundant.
When the chase of the nobler animals--the lion and the wild bull--had been conducted to a successful issue, the hunters returned in a grand procession to the capital, carrying with then as trophies of their prowess the bodies of the slain.

These were borne aloft on the shoulders of men, three or four being required to carry each beast.