352 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
low round hat or turban. On the cylinder the two bearded figures show the 
strong muscles of the leg and knee, while the leg of the beardless figure is quite 
unmarked. The style of the figures is much like those of the time of Assurbanipal, 
and Rawlinson is probably right in ascribing it to about 600 B. C. We may con- 
ceive this cylinder as having been engraved in Nineveh for a foreign customer; 
or the people who used the writing may have lived much nearer to Assyria than 
Southern Arabia. As it was found in Anah, several days’ journey north of Babylon, 
one is inclined to think that the desert tribes to the west may at this early period 
have received the Sabean writing. 
Unfortunately the cylinder shown in fig. 1208 is broken, but fortunately the more 
important part is preserved. As it is, it is a most precious monument of the earliest 
Arabian writing. The inscription consists of twelve letters, besides one vertical 
stroke which seems to divide words. ‘There is also space, in a little fracture, for 
one or two other letters. The reading seems to be: ymin? | 7won--2 
% "e/a “dee T1101 
ats ct? 
Ae 



3 

The design shows us a god seizing a lion with each hand, somewhat after the 
Persian style, but drawn with much more vigor. Between the backs of the lions isa ~ 
magnificent bird, with the neck of a swan, ibis, or peacock, and with an exaggerated 
crest and with distinct wattles. One will observe the naked god, quite different 
from the Persian convention, and the headdress, if it be not intended to represent the 
hair. It hardly seems square, with feathers, like the headdress in fig. 1207. The 
bird suggests the mythical phenix, which had its home in Arabia and which, under 
the name hé/, was supposed by Jewish commentators to be mentioned in Job 29:18: 
I said I will die in my nest, 
I will multiply my days as the phenix (sand). 
Another cylinder showing a Sabean inscription is seen in fig. 1209, which 
seems to carry the inscription (not reversed on the cylinder) ¥7a7y. The design, 
however, does not appear to be South Arabian, but such as might have been found 
in the regions to the west of Assyria or in Syria. A god, in a square hat and a 
long garment and holding what may be a sheaf of thunderbolts in his hand, stands 
ona bull. Above are the star, the seven dots, and the crescent. Before him is a 
worshiper with hand raised. Before and behind them is a bird-headed winged 
figure, carrying in the lifted hand a fruit and in the depressed hand a pail or basket, 
such as we so often see before the sacred tree. In such a case as this it is evident 
that these figures are not fertilizing the flowers of the palm-tree, but more likely 
carry gifts and fortune for the worshiper at the bidding of the god. ‘The god can 
hardly be any other than some form of Adad or Ramman; and it would seem 
likely that the seal was engraved quite under Assyrian influence and from a region 
neighboring to it. 
In fig. 1210, Hommel (“Die Siidarabischen Altertiimer,”’ p. 32) has recognized 
a Sabean (Lihyanian) inscription of three letters, which he reads as Shahr, the 
Moon-god of South Arabia. The central figure is, as he correctly explains, the 
