iqs flora of the 



It will suffice here to suggest that the royal sceptre, 

 which we often meet with, is probably nothing but a 

 modification of the raised hand; and that the 'pentadent' 

 may be only a modification of a raised open hand. 



When the artist, for whatever reason, begins to 

 modify a thing, the variations become so great, that 

 it is often difficult to say whether it 

 originally was this or that. Fig. 98 

 would seem to mean a sceptre tipped 

 Fig. 98.— From pi. 62, with an open hand, and fig. 93^ is a 



fig. 4, of Lajard's 



'Cuke de Mithra.' sceptrc ending in a hand, supported 

 by what may originally have been meant for two horns. 

 The Pope's hand with three fingers open, and Buddha's 

 hand with three others, may be, as I said, only variations 

 of tridents, 



Fig- 93^ would seem meant for a sceptre, perhaps a 

 modification of that of {q). 



On the monuments we frequently meet with the figure 

 of the king, or some other high functionary, with one 

 hand uplifted, usually the right one.^ This would appear 

 to mean a sign of authority, and a means of distin- 

 guishing the different figures in the picture, the features 

 being all of the same type, and the dress not always 

 very different. 



^ In tr>'ing to decipher symmetrical drawings, we should not forget that the 

 Assyrian artist often splits up one figure into two symmetrical halves, so that 

 if on one side he shows the figure with the right hand up, on the other he 

 may show the left hand. 



