made of reeds to be a fit vessel for receiving the food of Brahmins devoted to God.

Whatever the application of the sacred basket may

have been, it was one of the most indispensable utensils of the Assyrian worship. It appears to have been square, and about as deep as wide, that is, about five inches; with a handle apparently of wire passing in a bow from one side to the opposite. In the earliest forms, as on the Nimroud sculptures, it was generally either plain, with a narrow elegant border, or else ornamented with an embossed representation of the worship to which it was consecrated, the sides displaying figures of priests over the sacred tree. At a later epoch, as at Khorsabad, it took the appearance of plaited or interwoven work, like matting in texture. But probably it was always formed of metal, and this pattern may have been given in allusion to the original rude basket of wicker, which may have been used in primitive times. Here we

occasionally see it of a different form, being narrow, and deep, and rounded at the bottom.

Before we close this very imperfect notice of the Assyrian idolatry, as gathered from the monuments, we must speak of the strange compound animal forms that occupy so prominent a place on them. They who have looked upon the gigantic human-headed winged lion and bull, that now adorn the great lobby of the British Museum, may conjecture the imposing effect produced by such colossal guardians when stationed at either side of the portals that opened into every hall of the temple-palaces of Assyria. Carved

in bold, almost full relief, their muscular well-knit limbs, their gigantic dimensions towering to twice the stature of man, their expanding eagle-pinions, and the awful majesty of their human countenances as they frowned down from their imposing elevation upon the spectators, must have impressed upon the latter a deep feeling of the greatness and sacredness of the beings they were intended to adumbrate.

But what ideas were intended to be conveyed by these strange mythic forms? Were they idols in the strict sense, objects of direct adoration? Some have thought they were. Others have considered them rather as embodiments to sense of abstract qualities, intellect, strength, ubiquity. The emblem which shadowed forth in vision to the Jewish prophet the Babylonian kingdom, might suggest,-especially remembering that in other cases, as those of the Persian ram and the Macedonian goat, nationally recognised emblems were so chosen,-that under these monstrous combinations of heterogeneous forms was couched a symbolic representation of the Assyrian empire, of which the Babylonian was but a sort of reproduction.

And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. Dan. vii. 3, 4.

It seems manifest that they were not gods. Their proper position at the entrance-gates of the edifices, and not in the sanctuaries or adyta, their absence from the scenes which represent worship, and the rela

tions which they sometimes sustain to the priests, show this. In the ornamental embroidery of a royal robe there is represented* a vulture-headed priest who runs up to meet a human-headed, winged lion, adorned with the sacred three-horned cap, and seizes him by the fore-paw, while with the other hand he prepares to strike the gigantic monster with a flexible weapon, somewhat like an india-rubber life-preserver. The fear depicted in the countenance of the bearded monster, as he draws himself strongly but vainly back from the grasp of his assailant, contrasts strikingly with the rage and eagerness conveyed by the aspect and action of the latter.

A similar scene is depicted in another part of the robe, with a slight variation; the lion-man is looking over his shoulder, as if imploring help from behind.

In a hunting-scene, likewise embroidered, the king in his chariot shoots a wild bull; before him a vulture-priest has pursued and caught by the tail a human-headed, winged lion, and is smiting him with a mace. The strange prey looks back and strives to escape, while another in the distance gallops off, glancing back at his fellow's danger.

These representations are conclusive that divinities were not intended by the compound animals; and we can hardly suppose that the artist would have depicted them on the royal robes as subject to such indignities, if they had been considered as emblems of the nation itself.

The similarity of these forms to the cherubim, seen in vision by Ezekiel, has been often noticed; and it is the more worthy of remark, because that vision. was seen by that prophet " in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar," at no great distance from the mighty city, which, with its sculptured basreliefs and magnificent imagery, was in all probability familiar to his gaze.

And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet: the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Ezek. i. 4-14.

:

This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims. Every one nad four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward. Ezek. x. 20-22.