represent wicker work, or sometimes actually of wicker work."

He adds, that M. Lajard "has shown the connection between the cone of the
cypress and the worship of Venus in the religious systems of the East;"
that it has been suggested that "the square vessel held the holy water,"
that, "however this may be, it is evident from their constant occurrence on
Assyrian monuments, that they were very important objects in religious
ceremonies. Any attempt to explain their use and their typical {36}
meaning, can at present be little better than ingenious speculation."

There is a passage in Lucian _De Dea Syria_, § 13., which may serve to
elucidate this feature in the Nineveh marbles. He is referring to the
temple of Hierapolis and a ceremony which Deucalion was said to have
introduced, as a memorial of the great flood and the escaping of the
waters:

[Greek: "Dis ekastou eteos ek thalassês ydôr es ton nêon apikneetai;
pherousi de ouk irees mounon alla pasa Syriê kai Arabiê, kai perêthen
tou Euphrêteô, polloi anthrôpoi es thalassan erchontai, kai pantes ydôr
pherousai, ta, prôta men en tôi nêôi ekchrousi,"] &c.

"Twice every year water is brought from the sea to the temple. Not only the
priests, but" all Syria and Arabia, "and many from the country beyond the
Euphrates come to the sea, and all bring away water, which they first pour
out in the temple," and then into a chasm which Lucian had previously
explained had suddenly opened and swallowed up the flood of waters which
had threatened to destroy the world. Tyndale, in his recent book on
Sardinia, refers to this passage in support of a similar utensil appearing
in the Sarde paganism.