54 FLORA OF THE 



says : " In a certain part of Chaldea, south of Babylon, 

 the ' arbre de vie ' was the date tree, which furnished the 

 greater portion of the food of the people, and from the 

 fruit of which they made an intoxicating drink, a kind 

 of wine. To this tree they attributed, in a popular 

 song, as many benefits as there are days in the year. 

 . . . . and here we must note that the ancient Acadian 

 name of ' vine,' applied equally by misuse to the ' wine ' 

 {ges-tin), is a compound, which, properly speaking, means 

 ' tree of life,' or more exactly ' wood of life,' from the 

 two well-known words gis, gcs, wood, and tin, life." 



In interpreting the meaning of Assyrian sculptures 

 and cylinders, I think it possible to lay too much stress 

 on the emblem of the Supreme God, or any other figure 

 being found surmounting or accompanying anything. 

 Decorative artists get into the habit of weaving their 

 ideas into pictures for effect, without much depth of 

 meaning, and sometimes probably only to fill in a space 

 with something not wholly incongruous with the rest of 

 the picture. So much so that this winged figure of the 

 Deity, according to Layard, was used for decorating 

 chariots ; much, perhaps, as a Calabrian peasant at the 

 present day might decorate his cart with figures of the 

 Madonna and other saints. 



It does not appear that in those days the Assyrians 

 used the sap of the date tree, as they do now in other 

 countries, either fresh or fermented, as an alcoholic drink. 



