2.] Of the other amusements and occupations of the Assyrians our knowledge is comparatively scanty; but some pages may be here devoted to their music, their navigation, their commerce, and their agriculture.

On the first and second of these a good deal of light is thrown by the monuments, while some interesting facts with respect to the third and fourth may be gathered both from this source and also from ancient writers.
That the Babylonians, the neighbors of the Assyrians, and, in a certain sense, the inheritors of their empire, had a passion for music, and delighted in a great variety of musical instruments, has long been known and admitted.

The repeated mention by Daniel, in his third chapter, of the cornet, flute, harp sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music--or, at any rate, of a number of instruments for which those terms were once thought the best English equivalents--has familiarized us with the fact that in Babylonia, as early as the sixth century B.C., musical instruments of many different kinds were in use.

It is also apparent from the book of Psalms, that a variety of instruments were employed by the Jews.

And we know that in Egypt as many as thirteen or fourteen different kinds were common.