One picture the Two River people made has been copied by the artists of many other countries.This was the picture of a peculiar tree called the Tree of Life.It is a tree like no tree that grows.It has many different kinds of leaves and flowers and fruits all on the same tree at the same time.It is often used in designs on rugs and in embroidery.We don’t know what it meant or why it was called the Tree of Life，so you’ll just have to guess why.
【中文阅读】
从地图上看，距离埃及只有一英寸远，但在实际地面上却相距一千英里的地方还有一个古国，叫——唉，那儿有好几个国家呢，而且名字都很难记。埃及是一个只有一条河流的国家。另外那些国家，都在埃及以东千里以外，却都有两条河，所以我们把它们放在一起简称两河流域。如果你想知道这些国家的真实名称，它们分别是美索不达米亚、迦勒底、巴比伦和亚述。
据说这个流域曾是伊甸园所在地。一河之国（埃及）和两河流域是世界上两个最古老的国家。我们不知道哪个更古老。
两河流域曾有古代最大且最重要的城市——那些城市或许比纽约和伦敦还要大——由强大而残暴的君王统治。然而，这些古老的城市没有一座建筑物保存下来。这些建筑物不像埃及的建筑物是石头的，因为两河流域的石头非常少。它们是用泥砖砌成的，因为两河流域有很多泥土，但是，这些泥砖只在太阳底下晒干，而不像埃及的砖块是用火煅烧的。你知道，太阳晒干的泥块要不多久就会崩裂。所以，那些用晒干的砖块砌成的房屋都坍塌了，曾经宏伟的城市如今只剩下堆堆砖灰，看起来就像一座座天然形成的小土丘。
我们可能会纳闷这些国家的人们为什么不用火烧制砖块，因为煅烧的砖块比几乎任何其他东西都持续长久。原因是他们没有太多的木材或其他的燃料来生火。然而，他们在一些砖块的表面上绘画和装饰，再抹上一种类似于玻璃的物质（我们称之为釉料），最后用火烤制，将它们变成了有色瓷砖。这些瓷砖存留了下来，后来人们在挖掘遗址时在土砖房城市的废墟里发现了这些有色瓷砖。
如我所说，在埃及，画家画画主要是给死人看的。而在两河流域，画家并不关心死者。他们画画供人观赏。
君王们不造坟修墓。他们对自己死后变成什么样子不感兴趣。相反，他们为自己建造庞大的宫殿，为他们的神灵建造宏伟的庙宇。这些宫殿和庙宇用泥砖砌成，因此不太美观，所以画家们就在雪花石膏和瓷砖上画上图画贴在墙上。
雪花石膏是一种石头，通常是白色，很柔软，所以雕刻起来很容易。因此艺术家在雪花石膏上雕刻，再涂上颜色。他们涂色的方式和埃及人的绘画方式差不多。
每块瓷砖上都画有整幅画的某个不同部分，再把许多瓷砖放在一起组成一幅大画，就像把不同的拼图合在一起一样。有一种图画你可能没见过，它由许多不同颜色的小石块构成。这种由有色石块构成的图案称作镶嵌画。而最早使用镶嵌工艺的正是那些生活在两河流域的人。
埃及人画在坟墓和殿宇内墙壁上的图画仍然保留在那里，而那些画在木乃伊箱子上的画却已被博物馆收藏了。两河流域人在雪花石膏和瓷砖上作的画已从建筑物的废墟中被挖掘出来，也放进了博物馆。
两河流域人在雪花石膏和瓷砖上作的画讲述了国王及其侍臣们的所作所为。主要有两件事是国王和侍臣们做了还喜欢再做的，那就是狩猎和打战，所以就有了许多关于争战和狩猎场景的绘画。
在两河流域发现的图画和埃及的图画也有某些相似之处。像埃及人一样，两河流域人也是在侧脸上画上正视的眼睛，却把肩膀画成侧向。在画后面的人时，他们也像埃及人那样把后面的人画在前面人的上方。但是，在两河流域艺术家的一些画中，他们也的确试图通过把后面人抬高一点并缩小一些，或让前面人稍微挡住后面人一点来画出他们。这种表现远近效果的画法叫做透视法。
但是两河流域艺术家画的人物跟埃及艺术家画的人物又有所不同。两河流域艺术家崇尚力量，敬佩强壮的人。他们认为所有强壮的人都有长长的头发和胡须，所以就把国王画得很强壮，手臂和大腿上的肌肉发达，留长发，养胡须，而且缕缕都是精心卷曲的。这些卷儿都呈常见的螺旋卷，就像被烫发钳刚卷过的一样！
这里人画的动物比埃及人画的要生动得多。他们最喜欢画的是狮子和公牛，因为这些动物都很强壮。
两河流域人特别擅长图案设计和边框装饰。有一种叫做圆花饰，中间有个小圆点，一些轮状的图案环绕周边。我们至今仍在使用这种图案。他们设计的另一种图案叫做纽索饰。今天我们在浴室和公共建筑大厅里使用的瓷砖仍采用了某些类似的图案设计。
两河流域人有幅画已被许多其他国家的画家临摹过。画面是颗很奇特的树，称作生命树。它和自然生长的树不一样，它同时长满不同种类的叶子、花朵和果实。通常在地毯和刺绣的图案上见到这种设计。它的含意是什么，为什么叫生命树，我们都不知道，所以你就得自己猜一猜啦。
APRIL FOOL PICTURES
愚人画
I ONCE had a cat whom I used to tease by holding her up to a mirror.When she saw what she thought was another cat，she would arch her back and spit.I thought it very funny.But this is a strange thing—if you showed her the picture of a cat，she didn’t seem to see it at all.Dogs are the same.They will growl when they see themselves in a mirror，but if you show them a picture of another dog or even a cat，they will pay no attention to it at all.Animals，though they have eyes to see，do not see pictures.
Some people are like that.They may look at pictures but not see them.So there is a difference between looking and seeing.That’s what the Bible means when it says there are those that “have eyes.and see not.”
When I was a boy，there used to be a candy shop on the corner.On the counter was painted a silver dollar.It was painted so naturally that every one tried to pick it up.I thought it wonderful and that the artist who had done it must be a wonderful artist，too.
I remember also being taken to an art gallery where there was one picture that I liked best.To me it was a marvel.It was the picture of a door half open，with a lady peeking out from behind it.When you first looked at it，you were startled.The picture was so lifelike you could hardly believe it was not a real person looking out from behind a real door.I thought that must be the greatest kind of art—to paint something so natural and lifelike that a person would be fooled into thinking it real.
Well，the old Greek painters seemed to feel the same way about pictures.Greece，as you know，is across the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt.You may not know，however，that the Greeks were the greatest sculptors that have ever lived and were also great architects.But their pictures were not so great，for many of them were of this kind of April Fool painting that I’ve described.They tried to paint pictures that would fool people into believing they were real.
In Egypt and Assyria we know the paintings but not the names of the painters who did them.In Greece we know the names of the painters but not the paintings they did.Here is the name of the first painter whose name we do know.He was a Greek.It is a hard name，not easy like Smith or Jones，for most Greek names sound strange to us.But as he is called the father of Greek painting，you might want to remember his name.It was Polygnotus.The writers of the time of Polygnotus tell us that he was a wonderful painter，but not one of his pictures is in existence，so we have to take their word for it.
As a matter of fact，we have very few Greek paintings，and one reason that we have so few is that most of the pictures were painted on something that could be moved from place to place，like the pictures we hang on our own walls，and these movable pictures have all been lost or destroyed.
One of the most famous April Fool painters was a Greek artist named Zeuxis，who lived four hundred years before Christ was born.It is said that he painted a boy carrying a bunch of grapes and the grapes looked so real that the birds came and pecked at them，trying to eat them.He entered his picture in a contest，or match，with a rival painter named Parrhasius.It was to be decided which was the greater artist.Every one was sure that Zeuxis must get the prize because the birds were fooled into thinking the grapes he had painted were real.Parrhasius’s picture had a curtain drawn across the front of it.