ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 6i 



I have, however, to give here a Httle warning. It 

 does not follow that because they are like acorns that 

 therefore the fruits of this sacred tree were meant for 

 acorns. I have shown in another place that the hard- 

 ness of the engraver's stones — for this form of sacred 

 tree is to be traced only on cylinders — his rude tools, 

 and the small space on which he had to work, may 

 have been some of the reasons why he made them 

 look like acorns, although perhaps nothing may have 

 been further from his 

 mind than to mean them 

 for acorns. It is not 

 impossible that the en- 

 graver may have meant 



Fig. 27. — Three variations in the bunches 

 them for bunches of grapes; of grapes: [a] has often thetipontlie 



side ; (b) has large shoulders ; (c) is 

 fig. 27 gives three varia- usually the dressed form of the shops. 



tions of the bunches, and {b) would not be unlike an 

 acorn if the Assyrian engraver had tried to reproduce 

 it on a hard small surface. The shoulders of the bunch 

 would be indicated by an oval outline, and the conical 

 end by a separate cone. 



This completes the list of sacred trees which are to 

 be found on the relics of the Assyrians. I think they 

 can be readily identified with the useful and common 

 trees of those regions. The fifth is rather problematical. 

 It may be an oak tree, it may be a vine. We have 

 never, I think, been told why the ancient Gauls 



