48 



FLORA OF THE 



It would appear to me that there can be no question 

 that its great usefuhiess, in many ways, was the first 

 cause of its adoration. All the other divine "entourage" 

 could have easily been evolved afterwards in the minds 

 of religious poets. 



This then is the most notable of the sacred trees 

 of Assyria. 



But, as I stated, there seems to have been in Assyria 

 a variety of sacred trees. I shall now take up the 

 vine and see what can be made of it. 



The vine is so frequently and unmistakably re- 

 presented on the Assyrian Monuments that in those 

 days it must have been growing everywhere like a 

 weed. This plant, with its slender stem, must have 

 often been seen climbing up date trees, and festooning 



itself among them. So that 

 probably the sacred tree shown 

 in fig. 1 6 may be an artistic 

 and conventional combination 

 of a date tree, with the slender 

 stems of vines intertwined a- 

 mong the main tree and the 

 smaller heads of foliage, re- 

 peated, for decorative purposes, 

 all round its contour. Of 

 course, in such a case, the 

 vine would be meant to be 



Fig. 20.— Sacred tree (Nimrood). 

 Ravvlinson's ' Five Great Mon- 

 archies,' p. 7. 



