BAU-—GULA. 83 
where the inscription, partly filiary and in two columns, is unfortunately defaced, 
but appears to read, “Dada of Nippur.”” Another example appears in fig. 227, of an 
earlier period, where we have a maid with a pail for an offering. Noticeable are the 
unusual duplication of the crescent and the dagger-like object under the star, prob- 
ably the emblem of a god (figs. 150, 151). 
The variety of this design which gives us the worshiper led by a flounced 
divine attendant to the goddess was a favorite one in the time of Gudea, as shown 
by the number of cases in which it appears impressed on case tablets of his 
period. One of these is shown in fig. 228. Here we have, what might be expected 
from this place and time, the so-called “eagle of Lagash”’ before the goddess. 
We have precisely the same design in fig. 229, except that there is a lion figured 
on the seat of the goddess, as perhaps on the kudurru in fig. 1274. But it may be 
that the lion on the seat of the goddess indicates that the deity represented is not 
Bau but Ishtar, who is peculiarly connected with the lion. Indeed another cylinder 
of the same type impressed on a tablet in the Louvre (fig. 421) has the goddess 
(misdrawn by the artist as a god) with two lions on her seat and two lions (or 
serpents) rising from her shoulders. 

Much more frequent than either the lion or the eagle of Lagash, as accompany- 
ing the goddess Bau, is the long-necked bird which appears to be a swan or per- 
haps a goose. We see it in fig. 230, where we have both the eagle of Lagash and the 
bird, and a crutch-like object behind the goddess. But a much more decisive case, 
in which this is made the peculiar bird of Bau, as the peacock was of Juno, is 
shown in fig. 231, drawn from the impression of the seal on a tablet of the Gudea 
period or a little earlier. Under the seat and feet of the goddess are two swans, 
apparently, just as we see two lions under the feet of Ishtar. We have in the field 
the star in a crescent and two scorpions. In order to illustrate the relation of 
this bird to the goddess, three other cases are herewith drawn (figs. 232, 233, 234). 
Fig. 233 is noticeable for what appears to be a vase on a pole. Other such examples 
are seen, however, though less rarely, in which the swan (or goose, if such it be, or 
even heron) is found without the goddess to whom she specially belongs. Such 
cases we see in figs. 306, 309. In such cases we may regard the bird as the simple 
