226 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
horn. On each side of the tree is a small seated animal with one foot raised in the 
attitude of worship. ‘There is also a star. “The winged god with the star in his 
crown is the same god whom we shall see associated with Ishtar in Chapter Xt. 
Yet one other seal of this general type we may add (fig. 686). Here the tree 
is mechanically made, as indeed most of the engraving here is, with the terebra, 
and the fruit is of the acorn shape. Above it is the god Ashur in triple form, under 
which are the supporting figures, half bull. On one side is the worshiper and on 
the other a god, or subordinate protecting spirit, clothed in a fish-skin. Other 
emblems are a crescent, a star, a slender wedge, which may represent Nebo, and 
a peculiar object like a Roman cross, in which it 1s not easy to recognize Marduk. 
For another similar scene see de Clercq “Catalogue,” No. 340, where the supporting 
figures are half bull. In the Syro-Hittite art, as in fig. 949, the bull before the 
sacred tree became winged and he stands on each side of the sun in a crescent 
resting on an Ionic column, this column being derived from the date-palm rather 
than from a lotus.. 
In a number of cylinders we have a man-fish, or a god clothed in a fish-skin, 
before the tree. Such a case appears in fig. 687. Here under the winged image of 
Ashur is a formal tree, and a god in fish-skin each side holding a pail, but not a 


fruit. We have also Marduk, with his scimitar, attacking an ostrich, as shown in 
figs. 587-595, and with a quiver from his shoulder. In another case (fig. 689) the 
winged disk lacks the head of the god. On one side of the tree is the worshiper, 
and on the other the god in the fish-skin holds a pail, but not a fruit. Under a star 
isa hawk on an eminence. Fig. 688 is interesting for the reason that the duplicated 
worshiper, behind whom stands the fish-clad genius, holds in one hand a triple 
branch of fruit, such as we have seen above on the bas-reliefs from Layard’s “ Monu- 
ments,”’ seen also in fig. 696, but which seldom appears on the cylinders. The 
branch of flowers or fruit on the bas-reliefs is often carried by a winged figure, 
but may also be carried by the king as already shown. Yet another case (fig. 690) 
gives the man-fish rather than the deity clad in the skin of a fish. While unfor- 
tunately this cylinder is so broken as nearly to ruin the inscription, arranged in an 
unusual way, horizontally, enough is left to indicate that it begins with the name 
of the owner. Under the image of Ashur is the sacred tree and on each side of 
it the man-fish, which we have seen in the last chapter on both Babylonian and 
Assyrian cylinders, the human body ending in that of the fish. There stands a god 
with one foot on the body of each fish, and the other on the shoulder of the human 
portion. Apparently he holds the fruit in one hand, while the other carries the pail. 
We have in fig. 691 a large rude cylinder in which the figure of the worshiper 
simply is repeated on each side of the winged disk and tree, and the space behind 
the two figures is occupied by a star over a rhomb, over a fish, over a bird. 
