ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 77 



This mode of reasoning may overlook the straits to 

 which the sculptor may have been put, owing to the 

 smallness of the slab! In No. 38, British Museum, there 

 is a similar one. The tree is not in the middle of the 

 slab, and so the sculptor, for want of sufficient space, 

 has made the cone-hand of one genius encroach on the 

 tree. This interpretation seems supported by the fact 

 that the sculptor was forced to cut off a bit of the wings 

 of that same figure, for the same reason ! 



For similar reasons the genius of No. 2, British 

 Museum, is made to touch the king's back hair with 

 his cone. 



But admitting that the cone, when pointed to the 

 date tree, means fertilization, what possible meaning can 

 it have when pointed to the king's head, or to the 

 entrance of Sargon's palace ? We are forced to fall 

 back, as d'Alviella suggests, on the abstract idea that 

 the whole thing means fecundity — a phallic emblem — 

 denoting 7inivcrsal reproduction} 



In the Louvre, as I mentioned, there is a genius 

 holding a cone, which, compared with the hand, is very 

 much smaller than those of the British Museum. This, 

 I think, would indicate that the Assyrians used for this 

 ceremony different kinds of cones. 



In further support of the theory of fertilization Count 



1 That there was phallic worship in ancient times is apparent enough, 

 but it does not necessarily follow that everytlmig had a phallic meaning. 



