90 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
Sometimes the god, instead of stepping up over the mountains, lifts himself 
by his hands, resting one or both on the mountains between which he stands. Such 
a case we see in fig. 254. Here the mountains are rudely represented by parallel 
horizontal lines. We particularly notice the early character between the backs 
of the two porters. It is not easy to say what it means, perhaps a variant of the 

eae’, 



252 253 
symbol or character for Shamash, the sun, which we saw in fig. 244. Another, 
of similar design, is shown in fig. 255, where a cypress-tree is again introduced. 
Fig. 256 is peculiar in that, since the god’s two hands are occupied in lifting him- 
self, an attendant carries his notched weapon for him until he shall escape the 
mountains between which he rises. In fig. 257 the god has only one hand on the 
mountain, while the other carries his characteristic weapon, and we see his name 
in the character under the crescent. 

Sometimes the god simply stands between the two mountains and appears to 
rise without visible effort, as in fig. 258 or in fig. 259, an unfinished cylinder. In 
the splendid cylinder shown in fig. 188 a narrow space is filled with a reduced 
representation of the Sun-god with his hands resting on mountains. This may 
suggest the beginning of a tendency toward a conventionalizing of the representa- 
tion of the god; but it took another form. 
