ce or gesture; we
have already encountered them at Nineveh mounting guard at the palace
gates (Figs. 6 and 7); they belong to the class of demons who, according to
circumstances, are alternately the plagues and protectors of mankind. The
place they occupy represents a middle region between heaven and earth,
namely, the atmosphere, which was believed to be entirely peopled by these
genii.

The third division contains a funerary scene by which we are at once
transported to earth. On the right there is a standard or candelabrum, and
on the left a group of three figures. One of these appears to be a man, the
other two have lions' heads and resemble the genii of the division above.
The most important group, however, is the one in the middle. A man swathed
in a kind of shroud is stretched on a bed, at the head and foot of which
appear two of those personages, half man and half fish, in which the Oannes
of Berosus has been recognized (Figs. 9 and 67).[442] The figure on the bed
must be that of a corpse wrapped in those linen bandages of which so many
fragments have been found in the tombs of Lower Chaldaea. The two fish-like
gods brandish something over the corpse which appears, so far as it can be
made out, to be a flower or bunch of grass. Their gesture appears to be one
of benediction, like that of a modern priest with the holy-water-sprinkler.

The lowest division is by far the most roomy of the four. It evidently
represents the regions under the earth, and both its size and the
complication of its arrangements show us that it was, in the opinion of the
artist, more important than either of the three above it. The whole of its
lower part is occupied by five fishes all swimming in one direction, a
conventional symbol always employed by Assyrian artists to represent a
river. The left bank is indicated by a raised line running from one side of
the plaque to the other. On this bank towards the left of the relief there
are two shrubs or reeds above which appears a group of objects whose
character is not easily made out. Are they ideographic signs or funeral
offerings? The latter more likely. At any rate we may distinguish vases,
bottles, a small box or comb and especially the foot of a horse drawn with
great precision. At the other end of this division a hideous monster
advances on the river bank. Its semi-bestial, semi-human head is flat and
scarred, with a broad upturned nose and a mouth reaching to the ears. The
upper part o