ribed[378]
was turned, as if in act of adoration, towards this device, it was
evidently a sacred emblem; and I recognized in it the holy tree, or
tree of life, so universally adored at the remotest period in the
East, and which was preserved in the religious systems of the Persians
to the final overthrow of their Empire.... The flowers were formed by
seven petals."[379]

This tree looks like a pillar, and is thrice crossed by
conventionalized bull's horns tipped with ring symbols which may be
stars, the highest pair of horns having a larger ring between them,
but only partly shown as if it were a crescent. The tree with its many
"sevenfold" designs may have been a symbol of the
"Sevenfold-one-are-ye" deity. This is evidently the Assyrian tree
which was called "the rod" or "staff".

What mythical animals did this tree shelter? Layard found that "the
four creatures continually introduced on the sculptured walls", were
"a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle".[380]

In Sumeria the gods were given human form, but before this stage was
reached the bull symbolized Nannar (Sin), the moon god, Ninip (Saturn,
the old sun), and Enlil, while Nergal was a lion, as a tribal sun god.
The eagle is represented by the Zu bird, which symbolized the storm
and a phase of the sun, and was also a deity of fertility. On the
silver vase of Lagash the lion and eagle were combined as the
lion-headed eagle, a form of Nin-Girsu (Tammuz), and it was associated
with wild goats, stags, lions, and bulls. On a mace head dedicated to
Nin-Girsu, a lion slays a bull as the Zu bird slays serpents in the
folk tale, suggesting the wars of totemic deities, according to one
"school", and the battle of the sun with the storm clouds according to
another. Whatever the explanation may be of one animal deity of
fertility slaying another, it seems certain that the conflict was
associated with the idea of sacrifice to procure the food supply.

In Assyria the various primitive gods were combined as a winged bull,
a winged bull with human head (the king's), a winged lion with human
head, a winged man, a deity with lion's head, human body, and eagle's
legs with claws, and also as a deity with eagle's head and feather
headdress, a human body, wings, and feather-fringed robe, carrying in
one hand a metal basket on which two winged men adored the holy tree,
and in the other a fir cone.[381]

Layard suggested that the latter deity, with eagle's head, was
Nisroch, "the wo