fully share and shall further support in dealing with the Egyptian
symbol.

The following data will be found to substantiate further the evidence
produced concerning the seven-fold organization of Babylonia-Assyria. One
of the finest bas-relief tablets at the British Museum excavated by Layard
from the ruins of Asurnasirpal's palace at Nimroud represents in its
centre the sacred conventionalized ashera=tree, above which is the winged
circle, from the centre of which issues the half figure of the god Assur
(_cf._ fig. 71, 1). To its right stand two winged figures wearing the
conical crown with four horns, and necklaces from which hang its
reproduction in miniature, also the cross, the symbol of Ishtar and the
moon. To the left of the tree stand two personages, wearing the high cap
with a flat top, central cone and hanging ends, such as are frequently
represented as worn by the kings. The natural inference would be that the
winged figures wearing the cap with horns represent high-priests and that
a double hierarchy corresponding to the dual monarchy probably existed at
one time, the result being "four lords," two celestial and two
terrestrial, corresponding to the "four regions," two of which pertained
to the Above or the heaven and two to the Below or earth. A curious
indication that at one time there were four separate rulers of the four
regions is furnished by the cap with four horns and the altar whose four
corners terminated in horns, when they are connected with the passage in
Revelations XVII, which refers to Babylonian symbolism and states: "And
the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings." Professor Jastrow states
that "similar horns existed on the Hebrew and Phoenician altars," and that
"if we may believe Herodotus, the great altars at Babylon were made of
gold" (p. 652).

Doubtlessly, Assyrian texts contain a fund of information yet inaccessible
to students, concerning the constitution of the state and the
modifications it may have undergone in course of time. An exhaustive study
of the symbols connected with Assyrian kings at different dates, in
connection with the text relating his conquests and foundations of
temples, may yet reveal the occasional assumption or usurpation by a
single individual of different degrees of power and, possibly, the
ultimate separation and antagonism of hierarchy and monarchy.

The employment in Assyria and Babylonia of the tree, as a sacred symbol,
should next be considered, f