the study of the symbolism of primitive people and is familiar with the
ancient Mexican image of the "lord of the North" standing in the centre of
a horizontally-placed cross-figure, and with the Chichimecan custom, on
taking possession of new territory, to shoot arrows towards the cardinal
points, the Ashur standard suggests a single explanation, namely, that it
was the symbol of celestial, central rulership and that the god, standing
on a staff which could be turned and aiming his arrow towards the four
directions in succession, was an expressive image of Polaris and
Septentriones.

Further ideas associated with the tree by the Babylonian-Assyrians are
clear since Professor E. B. Tylor has so conclusively shown that certain
bas-reliefs represent the act of artificially fertilizing the palm tree by
scattering the male blossom from its cone-shaped bunch, over the female
palm. In each case this rite is being performed by figures with human
bodies and large wings, _i. e._ high priests of heaven, and it seems
evident that it symbolized the mystic life-producing union of heaven and
earth or of the male and female principles of nature which marked the
Babylonian-Assyrian New Year's Day. Given these associations of thought,
it is easy to see how the New Year became the festival of New Life and how
the fertilized tree became the "tree of life," and its sculptured image a
memorial of a new year, possibly recording some record of the actual
marriages which took place in the state on that day. The decipherment and
comparison of the inscriptions on such tablets, by skilled Assyriologists,
can alone enlighten us on this point, but enough appears apparent to
explain how the tree could have become associated in Assyria not only with
life, but with the life and growth of the state. Moreover the tree or pole
itself, named ashera, may well have appeared to some Euphratean people, to
express the name Ashur sufficiently clear to become its symbol and
"canting arms."

The adoption of the shaft or pole, as a symbol of the Celestial Centre,
may easily be explained by the fact that, stuck into the ground and
watched from a certain position, its upper end would seem to touch Polaris
and it thus supplied wandering star-observers with a point of fixity in
space which, being transportable, facilitated the registration of
circumpolar rotation. During many centuries the image of the "crooked
serpent," Nakkasch, the constellation which could be see