SECTION OF OKIENTAL ANTIQUITIES. 139 



to. The artist who practiced the encaustic process first spread a mixture 

 of pure beeswax aud liquid balsam over a smooth surface, on which the 

 colors were laid in the form of a mosaic. The different colors were then 

 blended together by means of the cestrum, a spoon-shaped instrument, 

 the bowl of which had serrated edges, while the handle was rounded. 

 The portraits, painted in distemper, were executed in a composition con- 

 sisting of the yolk of an egg, a little oil, and the required powdered 

 colors. Still another process was to mix oil and color powder together 

 and put it on in a molten condition. Some of the pictures show that 

 all three processes were employed. It is difficult to determine the date 

 at which these paintings were executed, but it must have been some 

 time between 100 and 350 A. D. The portraits were probably painted 

 from life. The collection exhibits notably the different types of counte- 

 nance and the methods of dressing the hair. The originals are still for 

 sale and would be a great addition to any antiquarian collection. 



Dr. R. Zehnpfund, of Leipzig, presented an imitation of an Assyrian 

 clay tablet, written by himself, containing a hymn in praise of wine, in 

 the style of the Mmrod epic composed by Professor Haupt, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, Baltimore. The tablet was made out of a lump of 

 clay which, after being carefully sifted, washed, aud cleaned, was moist- 

 ened, rolled up in the form of a cylinder, and then flattened on a board. 

 When the clay became sufficiently dry so that it would not adhere 

 to the stylus, the tablet received the necessary polish by being rubbed 

 against a smooth, flat board. The stylus used for writing consisted of 

 a four-cornered piece of hard-oiled wood, the front end of which was 

 cut off slanting. Writing with this instrument was easy and did not 

 occupy much time. It took little more than an hour to write this 

 tablet.* 



Rev. Dr. William Hayes Ward, of New York, permitted copies to be 

 made of twelve Babylonian and Assyrian seals in his collection. Ten 

 similar objects were received from Prof. D. G. Lyon, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, and eighteen Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, and Egyptian 

 gems from Prof. H. Hyvernat, of the Catholic University. 



A series of photographs was purchased from the Palestine explora- 

 tion fund. 



DISTRIBUTIONS. 



Casts of forty Assyrian seals were presented to the University of 

 Pennsylvania ; a similar collection was sent to Prof. Howard Osgood, of 

 the University of Rochester, New York. Ten casts of Assyrian seals 

 were sent to Prof. D. G. Lyon, Harvard University, and two to Dr. 

 Ward. Copies of the Canopus Inscription were forwarded to Lehigh 

 University and to the Chinese minister. 



*The text with translation was published in the "Menu du diner offert an VIII ° 

 Oongre~s International des Orientalistes," Stockholm lo 7 sept. 1889. 



