CHAPTER XLI. 
THE PHYSICIAN’S SEAL. 
Among the objects brought from Babylonia by de Sarzec were two extraordinary 
and unique seals. One of these (fig. 772) is an immense cylinder of light-gray 
limestone, somewhat strati- 
fied, 60 mm. in height and 
33. mm. in diameter. It 
bears an inscription: 
Edina-mu-gi. 
The messenger 
The god Girra 
Ama-gan-sa-du 
Ur-Lugal-Edina, 
the physician, his servant. 

This inscription is in archaic style and is not easily understood. The fourth line 
can hardly be translated. ‘he physician would seem to be the servant of the “ mes- 
senger,”’ although it is not clear what the duties of the messenger were, nor whose 
messenger he was. Possibly he was servant of the god Girra, of whom we know 
very little, except that he was identified with Dibbara and so related to Nergal. 
Girra’s picture may be on this seal, as Edina-mu-gi may be the “messenger” of 
the god. The god Girra is figured, if it be he, in an unusual form. We have a 
standing god, bearded, en face, unusual in a male deity, and not in profile, dressed 
in the usual flounced garment and the high, horned turban. One hand is lifted 
and in the other he perhaps carries an uncertain rod or other object. Before him 
is a slender column from which hang two twisted thongs, and on the top of it 1s 
an uncertain object which may be a low vase with two branches rising from it, or 
a lamp with flames. It may even be the head of a deer with branching horns. 
The whole object looks like a whip with its handle, but the handle is so exactly 
like the two other columns and the objects above it are such that it is unlikely that 
it is a whip with its handle. The two other slender columns have each a vase 
standing on the top. O6cfele suggests that these are instruments for cupping, 
suitable for a physician’s seal, but this is quite improbable. The form is exactly 
that of the usual vase, and lines of parallel ornamentation are visible on the 
cylinder. Vases holding medicine are as much a part of a physician’s establishment 
as are cupping instruments. Leeches were not so infrequent in the East that cups 
would have been necessary, and their use was well known. 
255 
