ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 8i 



The rosette is certainly like a daisy, or other com- 

 posite flower, which in their ornamentations was often 

 copied, both by the Assyrians and Egyptians. 



It certainly is not like the leaf head of a date tree. 

 In the former composition (fig. 33) there seems internal 

 evidence that some religious ceremony was meant. In 

 the latter I fail to find any such internal evidence, and 

 therefore, I think it must have been meant for a simple 

 ornamentation. Both the daisy and the figure must 

 have been in the artist's mind. What was easier for 

 him to put, as a centre piece, than the symbol of a 

 date tree ? But he chose a daisy-like flower, because 

 evidently he did not mean it for a ceremony, but 

 for a simple ornament to fill a certain vacant space. 



In my opinion, if we were to endeavour to discover 

 some deep meaning in every outline those artists chose 

 to make use of, we should soon be landed in a sort 

 of chaos, and should have as much trouble as if we 

 tried to discover the meaning of every note a composer's 

 fancy may put into a piece of music. What depth of 

 meaning can there be on certain C}'linders when the 

 engraver puts in a monkey pla}'ing the flute, or a boy 

 cutting somersaults, or two kids playing on their mother's 

 back ? They are simply bits of humour of the artist 

 — the Harry Furniss of those days. 



So with the more serious compositions of other artists 



of those times. It was not at all ' de rigueur ' that 



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