200 BRITISH CICADA. 



rough methods will explain the irregular forms and the 

 eccentricities of the effigies so often seen, and caused 

 by the shifting of the blanks. Sometimes the upper die 

 was " incused " or roughly made in relievo, which would 

 insure the softer metal being forced into the details 

 cut in intaglio. The Grreeks used gold, silver, electron 

 (an alloy made of these last two precious metals), and 

 bronze. The inscriptions on their money in many 

 cases read backwards. Whether such coins were ever 

 used as signets does not clearly appear. 



Fig. 6, Plate H, is copied from Blumer and Keller's 

 work, which contains 1352 phototype illustratious.* 



Fig. 1, Plate H, represents a tetradrachm of Messania, 

 with a hare and a Cicada below. 



Fig. 5, Plate H, represents a coin of Larissa, show- 

 ing a horse which apparently has been stung by a 

 scorpion, stamped above [Tcttix enalios, a sea-tettix or 

 crayfish?). 



On Plate I, vol. i., will be found representations of 

 an Athenian tetradrach, and also two small bronze 

 coins with Cicadae. 



The graceful fables, spun out of the brains of the 

 ancient poets for the amusement of their admirers, of 

 course soon got woven into the beliefs and superstitions 

 of the vulgar. Gems containing Cicadas were cut for 

 ornaments of the person, and perhaps for charms, and 

 stones were engraved in intaglio to be used as signets. 

 The grotesque occasioDally appeared in the devices of 

 the former articles, a good example of which may be 

 seen in Fig. 2 of my Plate H. It has been copied from 

 King and Munro's ' Horace,' London, 1869, p. 338, 

 note, p. 452. It is there described as a locust driving 

 a plough, drawn by a yoke of Cicadae. 



This insect, the Italian Cigala, may be distinguished 

 from the bee, which it much resembles in glyptic 



■•' See 'Types of Greek Coins in the British Museum,' &c., by Percy 

 Gardner, M.A., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1883. See also, ' Tier und 

 Pflanzenbilder auf Miinzen und Gemmen des lilassischen Altertums 

 von Imhoof.' Teubner in Leipzig. 



