1834.] by General Ventura at Mdnikydla 319 



They are all wonderfully well preserved, and seem to have been se- 

 lected to shew us the prototype of the very five species of coins to which 

 the key monogram is peculiar. 



Leaving these coins, as already familiar to us, although by no means 

 exhausted in interest : — within this brass cylinder and buried in the 

 brown liquid appeared a gold cylindrical box, Fit/. 21, four inches long, 

 by 1^ inch in diameter ; the lid fitting closely on the interior of the 

 cylinder, which it entered to the depth of 1^ inches. 



This box was also filled with thick brown liquid mixed up with a 

 multitude of fragments of what M. Ventura supposed to be broken 

 amber (ambre brise). Fig. 22, a, b, c, d, e, will give some idea of their 

 appearance when washed. They were of a light yellow or topaz colour, 

 which was driven off by a red heat, leaving them colourless. The first 

 conjecture supposed them to be fragments of a glass vessel, which burst 

 into pieces from the expansion or fermentation of its contents ; and that 

 the small bit of string, Fig. 23, might have been used to bind the cover ? 



Within the box was discovered also, Fig. 24, a small gold coin 

 weighing precisely 30 grains (| drachma). The device resembles in 

 some respects the larger gold coin in the first gold box. 



Obverse. The king holding the spica and hook, (quere, sickle ;) dress as before 

 described, and characters on the margin decypherable ; as, ONIK1KOPANO — the 

 rest illegible. 



Reverse. A sacred personage standing with his hand out-stretched in an im- 

 pressive attitude ; his head surrounded with a halo or rather sun, as distinguished 

 from the moon on the other coin. The four-pronged symbol occupies a place to 

 the right, and on the left are some indistinct letters, KNIIPO. The head of the 

 figure is rather out of proportion, but the execution is otherwise very good. 



There is also another minute coin of gold, fig. 25. 



But the article of chief value in this cylinder is decidedly 



Fig. 26 .A plain disc of silver, upon which have been engraved certain 

 letters, evidently calculated and intended to explain the purport of 

 the whole mystery. The characters are precisely those of the lid of 

 outer brass cylinder : but their combination is different. There can be 

 little doubt of their affinity to the Sanscrit, but the difficulty of decy- 

 phering them is enhanced by the substitution of the written hand, 

 for the perfect Nagari, which it is clearly proved, from the coins dis- 

 covered in the first box, to have been well known at the same period. 

 The difference is such as is remarked between the mahdjani, and the 

 printed Nagari of the present day. 



I am unprepared to speak of the nature of the brown liquid, which 

 must therefore furnish matter for a separate notice. 



In the same receptacle of stone and lime were deposited outside the 

 copper box a collection of forty-four copper coins : all matching with 



