ISIAC SYMBOLS. 367 veloped in a transparent covering; the former with their heads shaven clean and their bare crowns shining white, the earthly stars of the nocturnal religion, raising as they went along a shrill tinkling with sistra of bronze, silver, and even of gold. But the chief performers in the ceremony were those nobles, who, clad in a tight linen robe descending from the waist to the heels, carried in the procession the glorious symbols of the most potent deities. The first held at arm's length a lamp, diffusing before him a brilliant light, not by any means like in form to those in ordinary use for illuminating our evening meals, but a golden bowl supporting a more ample blaze in the midst of its broad expanse. The second, similarly robed, held up with both hands the altar which derives its name from the beneficent providence of the supreme goddess. The third marched along bearing aloft a palm branch, the leaves formed of thin gold, and also the wand of Mercury. The fourth displayed the symbol of Justice, the figure of a left hand with open palm, which on account of its natural inactivity and being endowed with neither skill nor cunning, appeared a more fitting emblem of equity than the right hand would have been. The same priest also carried a small golden vessel made of a round form like an udder, out of which he poured libations of milk. The fifth bore a winnowing fan piled up with golden sprigs; the last of all carried a large wine jar. Immediately after walk upon human these follow the deities condescending to feet, the first rearing terribly on high his dog's head and neck that messenger between heaven and hell, displaying a face alternately as black as the night, and as golden as the day; in his left a caduceus, in his right waving a green palm branch. His steps were closely followed by a cow raised into an upright position; this cow was the fruitful symbol of the Universal Parent, the goddess, which one of the happy train bore with majestic steps supported on his shoulders. By another was carried the coffer containing the mystic articles, and closely concealing the secrets of the glorious religion. Another bore in his happy bosom the awful image of the Supreme Deity: not represented in the form of a beast either tame or wild, nor of a bird, nor even in the shape of a human being, but ingeniously devised and inspiring respect by its very strangeness: the ineffable symbol of a deeper mystery and one to be veiled by the profoundest silence. But next came, borne in precisely the same manner, a small vase made of burnished gold and most skilfully wrought out into a hemi-spherical bottom, embossed externally with strange Egyptian devices. Its mouth, but slightly raised, was extended into a spout and projected considerably beyond the body of the bowl, whilst upon the opposite side, widening as it receded to a capacious opening, it was affixed to the handle on which was seated an asp wreathed in a knot, and lifting on high its streaked, swollen, scaly neck.” The "vase shaped like an udder" is the exact description of that seen so often upon the gems, and which Matter so strangely explains as the vessel containing the sins of the deceased, a most unlikely subject to be chosen for an amulet intended to gain the favour of the heavenly powers. The winnowing fan often occurs placed upon this vase; and the golden bowl used as a lamp is often met with in the group of emblems which sometimes fills up one side of these intagli. Anubis, in order to display by turns a golden and an ebon visage, must have been represented with two heads in his image carried in this procession, just as he appears with wand and palm in the Basilidan representations. mysterious figure of the Divinity too awful for Apuleius to describe, from the strange expressions used by him to describe it as "neither beast, bird, nor man," I am tempted to believe must have been a compound of all three-very probably a statuette of our friend Abraxas himself, for it was of small The size, being carried hidden in the bosom of the priest's robe." This theory is confirmed by the circumstance that a bronze figure five inches in height, found in the South of France, now exists in the Mertens-Schaafhausen Collection, whence the following description of it is extracted. "No. 2062. Statuette of Iao standing, armed with cuirass and buckler and whip, his head in the form of a cock's, his legs terminating in serpents." From the extreme rudeness of many of these intagli, there can be little doubt that the manufacture of them was carried on long after the date usually assigned for the total extinction of the Glyptic art in Europe. The mechanical proceedings of this art are so simple and the instruments required in it so portable and inexpensive, that the sole cause of its being discontinued in any age must have been the cessation of the demand for its productions. But we actually have many Byzantine camei of the Middle Ages, and as the Manichean branch of the great Gnostic heresy flourished down to the thirteenth century under the names of Paulicians, Bulgarians, Albigenses, and Cathari, some of the extremely barbarous engravings in which the last trace of ancient art has disappeared may justly be referred to a period long subsequent to the fall of the Western Empire. We shall see that Marbodus, in the eleventh century, speaking of the Turquois and the Beryl, orders that certain figures should be cut upon them in order to endow them with magical powers. This he would hardly have done, if the art of engraving had been totally unknown in his day; for at a later period, when such was actually the case, we find the medieval philosophers always using the expression, "if a gem be found engraved with such 8 It must be remembered also that all writers agree that Iao was an Egyptian deity. or such a figure," thus proving that they were entirely dependant upon chance for the acquisition of these invaluable talismans, and that they had no artists within their reach capable of executing such designs according to their prescriptions. It was not the antique origin of these amulets, although ascribed to the ancient Hebrews, and thence called Jews' Stones, that alone gave them their mystic potency, for plenty of instances subsist of charms cut in medieval times on metal rings, in the characters of the period, a most curious instance of which is that figured by Caylus, VI., cxxx. A gold ring formed out of a square bar of equal thickness throughout, each side covered with an inscription in Lombardic characters, apparently in barbarous Greek but containing many Gnostic epithets, as follows: + OEGVTTÃÃ + SAGRĀ + hOGOGRÃ+IOThE+hENĀVEÃET + OCCINOMOC + ON + IKC+hOGOTE + BÃNGVES + ALPHÃ + 7IB +hIERNĀThOI+CEBÃI+GUTGUTTÃ+ICOTHIN+ This talisman was found in France and doubtless had belonged to some noble Albigeois of the thirteenth century, as may be inferred from the form of the characters of the legend. Another favourite charm was the names of the three Kings of Cologne, Casper (or Jasper), Melchior, and Balthasar; also the inexplicable words "Guttu Gutta Thebal Ebal," IHS Nazarenus, and numerous similar inscriptions of magical effect. From these instances we may conclude that they would have gladly multiplied the natural powers of the gems themselves, by engraving the miraculous Sigilla upon them, had not the art entirely disappeared from the cities of mediæval Europe. Indeed at the very commencement of the Revival we find Camillo Leonardo prescribing how and at what seasons such talismans ought to be engraved to acquire the promised powers: and in looking over miscellaneous lots of stones in Italy one meets with abundance of planetary magical, and invocatory intagli, evidently the productions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have never seen any camei bearing Gnostic representations: a strange fact if we consider the extensive use of these amulets under the Lower Empire, and one which proves the complete discontinuance of the art of engraving camei at that time. The unique cameo in my possession representing Anubis in the character of Hermes, above alluded to, from its high finish and careful execution was most probably the ornament of some believer in the Egyptian ancient doctrines, of the age of Apuleius. MEDICAL STAMPS. Medical stamps are small stone tablets with inscriptions cut upon their face and edges, giving the name of the medicines. and that of the maker or inventor; and were used for stamping the boxes containing them, in order to guarantee their genuineness, exactly like the present method of authenticating patent medicines by means of a seal. It is curious that most of these stamps belong to eye-salves. Such preparations must have been in great request among the ancients, who suffered greatly from diseases of the eyes, of which more than two hundred were specified by their oculists. This liability to such complaints was due probably to their custom of always going bare-headed, and passing from their confined and gloomy rooms into the full blaze of a southern sun, without any protection to the eyes. In the Herz Collection was a large Sard, engraved with a figure of the goddess Roma seated, inscribed HEROPHILI OPOBALSAMVM. The surface of the stone was much worn by use, and showed thereby the great demand there must have been for the boxes containing this preparation, which may have derived its name from the famous phy |