THE NINEVEH MONUMENTS AND MILTON'S NATIVITY ODE ILLUSTRATED FROM LUCIAN

Layard in his *Nineveh*, vol. ii., p. 471., in his description of "the sacred emblems carried by the priests," says, they are principally the fruit or cone of the pine. "... and the square utensil which, as I have already remarked, appears to have been of embossed or engraved metal, or of metal carved to 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, "howeve…