CHAPTER XXXI. 
RAMMAN AND SHALA. 
One of the gods most frequently figured on the cylinders wears a short gar- 
ment to his knees, stands firm on both feet, with the right hand behind him and 
with his left holding a short wand, or more likely club, to his breast. In fig. 425 he 
carries two wands. His headdress is not usually horned, but is the close, round 
turban with a band at the bottom holding it about the head, familiar as used at 
the time of Gudea. His beard is long and is likely to be a little spread at the 
end, as if to show that the ends curled up. With him almost always appears the 
goddess whom we take to be the conventional form of goddess, assigned to any 
god, and herself colorless. She has the high-horned turban, the long, flounced gar- 
ment, a long queue falling nearly to the ground, and stands in an attitude of respect 
before her god, with both hands raised. This same form of goddess we have seen 
with the sitting and standing Shamash, and she may appear, in Chaldean or Baby- 
lonian art, with any other god. With these seals, which we may suppose to be of 
the style affected by the common people and which are usually of hematite, we 
very frequently find simply the god and goddess facing 
each other, perhaps with the frequent filiary inscription, 
and often with simply the name of a god and goddess, 
“Ramman, Shala,” just as we have found the inscription 
“Shamash, Aa” so frequent on the cylinders on which 
we have recognized Shamash to be figured. The filiary 
#2 inscriptions may contain the name of any god as wor- 
shiped by the owner. We may suppose that the engraver kept a stock of seals for 
sale, ready to be filled out with the name of any purchaser, and some already 
engraved with the names of the deities represented. 
An illustration of the usual style, with filiary inscription, is shown in fig. 472. 
Here one will notice the armlet on the god’s left arm, as also the knob of the club 
at its upper end. It is not necessary to multiply 
cases in which we find precisely the same god 
and goddess, often without any inscription or 
other figure or emblem. ‘The frequent inscrip- 
tions with ““Ramman Shala,” we see in fig. 474, 
or we may read, instead of Ramman, the equiva- 
lent syllabic “Martu,” god of the West. A cyl- 
inder whose owner must have been a peculiarly 
devout worshiper of this god is seen in fig. 473. 
It has two registers, which are just alike. Ramman appears three times in each, 
twice with a worshiper and once with Shala. There are seven scattered lines of 
inscription on each register. The cylinder may be of the Kassite period. 
As has been said, we frequently find the name of Ramman engraved on these 
seals, either simply with his name and that of his consort, or he is mentioned as the 
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