ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 75 



constant presence of the bucket, which, as I have shown, 

 must have been of metal, and not of basket work, 

 seems to strengthen this notion. Then the operation 

 of sprinkling holy water round their date trees, round 

 the person of the king, and at the entrance of palaces 

 and temples to scare away evil spirits, seemed to be 

 more rational. 



Further, if we then take into consideration the small- 

 ness of certain slabs, and the necessities of sculpture in 

 figuring the act with a distended arm, holding the 

 sprinkler, we shall, I think, find that this theory will fit 

 all cases, and become more reasonable than any other 

 which has been yet imagined. 



To take in fully the importance of holy water, one 

 must realize that in Assyrian days, as now in Egypt, 

 or much more so, the terrors of the evil eye and of 

 evil spirits were every-day realities, that engrossed the 

 thoughts of those people. They lived in the midst of 

 the supernatural, in an atmosphere of devils, and some- 

 how their evil doings had to be continually counteracted. 

 None of us now, with our science teaching, can realize 

 to what extent the incubus of the supernatural must 

 have weighed on their minds. 



Holy water in those days must have been one of the 

 weapons by which demons were outwitted. Not only 

 has the Christian church inherited the notion of holy 

 water with many other Assyrian notions, but we have 



