ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 167 



Common water going to the representative of their 

 flocks would seem sensible enough, but what sense is 

 there in common water being sent to the mouth of a 

 winged monster (fig. S/*:) ? Holy water, indeed, might 

 mean a great deal. It might mean the subjection of 

 these monsters by the power of horns and holy water 

 — the breaking of the power of those evil spirits, in- 

 carnated in the shape of monsters. But the bull is 

 not an evil spirit. No, but the wild bull which they 

 had in those days might have been a real devil and 

 as formidable ^ and as troublesome as a lion, or an 

 eagle, and horns and holy water may have been the 

 charms by which they thought they drove away, or 

 tamed, wild bulls, wild animals, evil spirits, and the 

 rest of them. The fact of their being placed under 

 the feet of the human figure would also indicate conqjiest. 



My contention, therefore, would be — if it be a case 

 of water, and not of a leash — that it is not a god of 

 the tempest we are dealing with, armed with thunder- 

 bolts, but a god, if you like, armed with horns, spouting 

 out holy water and subduing devils. We can no doubt 

 go on spinning suppositions for a good bit out of our 

 inner consciousness. 



All these visions and pretty interpretations seem, 

 however, to be dissipated by studying the gods of 

 Babylonia in Prof. Sayce's ' Hibbert Lectures.' 

 ^ See introduction, note to page xiii. 



