3 i6 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



engraved. The Estruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians, who bor- 

 rowed many of the customs and superstitions of the Egyptians, 

 adopted the scarabeus as an ornament. Whilst the Egyptians 

 mounted the beetle in the plainest and most simple fashion, the 

 Etruscans, who have ever been the first gold workers in the world, 

 made the settings of their scarabei of the boldest and most artistic 

 forms. The earliest Greek rings were of base metal, not gold, 

 and had the signet devices cut on their faces. Many of the rings 

 found in Greek graves were made not for the living but for the 

 dead. These were of a hollow and light description, set with 

 pastes imitating jacinth, opal, and carbuncle. Rings were ex- 

 hibited of this kind set with a paste to imitate the opal, also a gold 

 finger ring from a grave in Cyprus, evidently that of a child, for 

 there the infants of wealthy families wore tiny gold rings. 



The custom of wearing finger rings was believed to have been 

 introduced at ancient Rome by the Sabines, who were described 

 in the early legends as wearing golden rings with precious stones 

 of great beauty. During the Empire, rings made of silver were 

 only worn by the emancipated slaves, and those of gold were 

 always wrought with the hammer and finished with the same tool, 

 the ductility of the gold permitting such a mode of treatment. 

 Hollow rings of this kind had often death within their compass, 

 and afforded convenient receptacles for poison. Of this practice 

 there are many instances recorded in ancient history, as the death 

 of Hannibal and of Demosthenes. Pliny relates how the custodian 

 of the Capitol, when apprehended for the gold which Croesus had 

 carried away from beneath Jove's throne, " broke the gem of his 

 ring in his mouth and at once expired." The key rings of the 

 ancient Romans are sometimes met with in Roman sites; they are 

 made of bronze, and were worn on the finger. Formerly it was the 

 custom with the bridal ring to deliver the keys of the house. In 

 the Saxon formula of matrimony the father of the bride is made to 

 say, " I give thee my daughter to be thy honour and thy wife, to 



