figures: one with bull's feet and tail (the prototype of the modern devil), is fighting with a man; the third, with hands raised, appears praying to the fourth, who stands motionless. Two men, one of whom has his hands raised: between the two is a tree; the other figure holds a sceptre; on the other side are three vertical lines of cuneiform letters. Two tall figures: a shorter one and two lines of cuneiform letters between them. Two figures standing erect, a plant and a staff between them: two lines of characters, mixed with animals, on the other side. Hieroglyphics entirely surrounding the cylinder, which is probably of EgyptoPersian date.

Layard divides cylinders into four classes-the Early and Lower Assyrian, the purely Babylonian, and the Persian. The Early Assyrian are usually of Serpentine, rudely engraved, and agreeing, in their subjects and style, with the most ancient bas-reliefs of Nimroud, such as the king in his chariot, discharging his arrows at the lion or wild bull; warriors in battle; the king or priest adoring the emblem of the deity; the eagle-headed god; winged bulls and lions; all accompanied by the common Assyrian symbols, the sun, moon, seven stars, the sacred tree, winged globe, and the wedge. Next in date are the Lower Assyrian, of the time of Sargon (Shalmaneser) and his successors. These are found in Agate, Jasper, Quartz, and Syenite, and other hard stones."

This proves that the discovery of the process of cutting intagli upon the harder gems, known technically as "Hard Stones," is due to the Assyrian engravers of the early times of Nineveh, for the contemporary Egyptian signets are, perhaps without exception, merely cut upon such soft materials as Steaschists, or else

upon metal, like those Royal Seals still preserved in gold. This is confirmed by the impression of the signet of Sabaco II., stamped on the same clay seal as that of Sennacherib; the former being evidently produced from an engraving cut on metal, the latter from a gemintaglio.

That ascribed to Sennacherib is of Amazon-stone; the intaglio being of the finest and most minute execution. The usual subjects of this class are the various gods and their worshippers; thus, one (5) presents the figure of Astarte, backed by ten stars, the crescent over her head and a seated dog in front; the worshipper is a female, behind whom is a tree and an antelope rampant.

The purely Babylonian are more common in European collections than the two former classes. For these Hæmatite, or rather Loadstone, is the favourite material, but Agates and Jaspers also occur. They bear the sacred figures, but are distinguished by legends in the Babylonian cuneiform character, containing the name of the owner and his patron god. Many of these exhibit excellent workmanship: one (2) in green Jasper-the Assyrian Hercules wrestling with a buffalo, and a horned human figure, having bull's legs, with a lion-is remarkable for the depth of the intaglio and the spirit of the design.

The latest of all, the Persian, are found in all the varieties of hard stones, Onyx, Calcedony, Crystal, Carnelian, &c. They often bear legends in the Achæmenian cuneiform: thus the signet of Darius, of green Calcedony, now in the British Museum, represents him in his car, accompanied by his name and patronymic. Another is engraved with the name of a certain Arsaces, the chamberlain. The Persian work is easily recognised by the draperies of the figures gathered up into narrow folds, as in the sculptures of the Achæmenian dynasty, a peculiarity never found on pure Assyrian or Babylonian monuments. Another mark of distinction is the crown worn by the royal personage, the figure of Ormuzd, now first introduced, and the fantastic monsters, agreeing in design with those of Persepolis. A cylinder of Crystal belonging to this period, representing Ormuzd raised aloft by two human

K

headed winged bulls above an oval containing the royal portrait, is a work of extraordinary delicacy and minuteness.

Cylinders went out of use on the Macedonian conquest, and do not reappear under either the Arsacidæ or the Sassanians. A few, Assyrian in character, are inscribed with Semitic letters resembling the Phenician. They belong to various periods, from the time of the lower Assyrian dynasty to the Persian occupation of Babylonia. To the first Layard assigns one (6) with two human-headed bulls raising the emblem of the deity above the sacred tree, flanked by a priest bearing a goat and by the worshipper, behind whom is the legend, placed vertically. Of Persian date is another (3), the king contending with a bull and griffin; above him soars Ormuzd. The legend, in four lines, reads, "the seal of "

a name and patronymic undeciphered.

These cylinders are found in great abundance among the ruins of all ancient Assyrian cities, verifying the assertion of Herodotus, that every man of that nation carried a signet of his own. As for their style of work, it is generally very rude, the figures seeming to have been ground out of the solid surface by rubbing and filing with a piece of emery; they are also often much worn and defaced by use, so as to be almost unintelligible. Very few indeed display any finish of execution; and such, especially the beautiful one in Sapphirine (before mentioned under "Calcedony"), I am disposed to assign to the skill of some Greek engraver in the service of the later kings of Persia. Their court was an asylum for all adventurers of the Hellenic race, just as that of the Great Mogul was in the 17th century for Italian jewellers and architects, and as that of the Sultan is for Frank pretenders at the present day.

The impression of these signets, when required for use, was taken by rolling them over a lump of tempered clay, laid

upon the object to be secured by the seal; and this is the source of the comparison in Job, where "the heavens are turned as clay to the seal," by which he poetically likens the concave vault, studded with the constellations, represented to his mind by numerous fanciful figures, to the surface of the clay spread out in a hollow plain adorned with the mythological devices impressed upon it by the revolution of the cylinder. Some stones of this form we have already noticed as evidently dating from Roman times, like that in Plasma previously described, but they are very uncommon, and merely due to the superstitious revival of an ancient usage.

Whenever signets are mentioned in the Old Testament, it is always as being borne on the hand, and never on the finger. Thus, in Gen. xxxviii. 18, Tamar demands the seal and the