across the dressed horizontal surface of the stone above their backs, upon which they must have seemed to bear the chief weight of the towers, if not of the door-jambs themselves. The blocks out of which they were carved were proportionately more massive than the other stones of the series, in order to bear a superimposed weight as well as to enable the forepart of the animals to be represented in the round. [Illustration: PLATE LXXIX SAKJE-GEUZI: LION CORNER-STONE (LEFT SIDE)] The subjects depicted on the slabs adjoining the lions, both those by the side along the frontage and those which immediately follow along the flanking walls of the portico, were reproduced in duplicate on either side. The nearest, along the side, shows in each case an eagle-headed winged deity with human body (a familiar Assyrian design); he stands erect, with bare feet, facing towards the lion; he proffers with the extended further hand a seed, and carries a basket in the near hand, which is held up with elbow bent. His dress is a plain skirt reaching hardly to the knees. The muscles of the legs are shown with some amount of detail. The wings are four in number, of which one pair rise up from the shoulders, while the others are depressed. The head-dress ends upon the shoulder in a conspicuous curling plait. The next slab is much wider, but the height remains the same, namely about three feet. On this two figures, standing and facing towards one another, are represented in the act of fertilising the sacred tree. The further hand of each holds a seed aloft, while the near one grasps a curving knife with upturning blade. The tree is shown conventionally with three pairs of curling branches, while the stem (but not the foliage) suggests the scaly date-palm.[687] The figures are clad alike, in a short skirt reaching just to the knee, covered by a sleeveless cloak cut away in front and falling behind to the ankles. The lower part is fringed. Their hats are like the fez of modern times, with a knob in the middle on the top (in the Assyrian fashion) and a horn upon the sides. Their feet seem (but not clearly) to be shod with shoes with upturning toes. The features, beard and hair, are in a conventional Assyrian style. Above the figures, and reaching from side to side of the slab, is the emblem consisting of a winged rosette and crescent. There are twelve petals to the rosette, and the crescent is immediately below it: in these two features we may have a prototype of the star and crescent of the Turkish peoples.[688] The legs of the bird[689] survive in the composition of this emblem only as decorative features, and the talons give place to outward curves or circles, like those seen on the head-dress of the sphinxes at Eyuk.[690] From these, slender pistillate objects, with divided or cup-like ends, hang down to touch the seeds within the uplifted hands of the men. Other objects like cords, but undefined, hang down from the same place, falling behind their wrists.