THE GOD ATTACKING AN ENEMY. 57 
The design shown in fig. 139a connects itself closely with those in Chapter xu, 
with the seated goddess. In fig. 139) the god with his usual club pushes his enemy 
backward and puts his foot on him. A second scene shows us, as in fig. 137), a 
monster like Eabani attacked by a god with rays from his body. ‘There is also a 
crescent over the sign for Shamash. Like it, in part, is another archaic cylinder (fig. 
139c), where a god, holding up a square object in one hand, steps on the foe whom 





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Se ea a age aT ETS 140 
he has pushed backward. Another scene shows a prisoner with his hands tied 
behind his back, who is threatened behind by a figure with an ax, while another 
before him shoots him with an arrow. Between them is a bison on a mountain 
together with a short inscription. 
There are now several cylinders to be considered of whose genuineness | 
confess I am not convinced, but which have passed as genuine into the cabinets 
and some of them have been published. Let it be premised that forgeries are often 
very skilfully made, and it is all the more difficult to detect them, when so made, 
from the fact that genuine cylinders, badly worn, have been taken and recut, fol- 
lowing in good part the original lines, but deepening them and adding false features. 


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140a 1405 
In the case of the older cylinders, long in museums, we have little to fear; the in- 
dustry has arisen, so as to be dangerous and sometimes deceive experts, only within 
the last twenty years, owing to an increased competition to secure these objects, 
and travelers and even dealers in antiquities are easily deceived. One of these, 
for which I would not venture to vouch, is seen in fig. 140. I find it difficult to 
believe that the rays about the body of the god and his victim, enveloping even the 
legs, are genuine. Unfortunately, the cylinder came into the possession of the 

