CHAPTER XXIX. 
THE DRAGON SWALLOWING A MAN. 
In this chapter are included illustrations of an occasional design which appears 
on the rather thick hematite cylinders that began to come in use apparently towards 
the end of the older period, before the time of Gudea. It gives us a naked victim 
on one knee attacked by a dragon, occasionally a lion, which opens its mouth to 
take in the victim’s head. We have such a one in fig. 453. On the other side the 
victim is threatened also by a rampant lion. Another lion opens his mouth to take 
in the head of an ibex, and in the spaces are another small lion and a turtle. These 
hematite cylinders are often much worn by usage and time. Another example is 
fig. 453a where the dragon seems ready to swallow the kneeling figure, who turns 


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his head back to see a lion which also attacks him. Also a worshiper presents a 
kid to the standing Shamash. Yet another is fig. 453). Here the victim attacked 
by the dragon kneels on a mountain. Gilgamesh kneeling on a lion lifts another 
lion over his head, and a lion fights with a human-headed monster with lion body. 
Another example of this type is seen in fig. 453c. It is remarkable in that it 
includes the two kinds of dragon, one of the older type swallowing a man, and the 
other of the later type, winged and with the long tail, more like that which accom- 
panies Marduk and Nebo, but the head is here plainly not that of a serpent, but of 
a lion. We also see Eabani fighting a lion. There are two small animals, one of 
which seems to be the very unusual fox. In fig. 4546 it is an ibex which the dragon 
attacks and a lion which attempts to swallow the man, while Gilgamesh and Eabani 
169 
