408 Cameo of Augustus in the Blacas Collection. 



by the circumstance that among them the intaglios, or engraved 

 stones, hold a very prominent place. The due was one of the 

 earlier friends of the late accomplished and lamented professor 

 of Arabic in Paris, M. Reimaud, who, at one time, might 

 almost be looked on as the keeper of his Mussulman anti- 

 quities, and who, in 1828, published, in two octavo volumes/ 

 a very learned description of them, under the title of Monu- 

 mens Arabes, Fersans, et Turcs, du Cabinet de la Due de Blacas 

 et d'Rures Cabinets. The choice Mahometan intaglios of the 

 Blacas collection are engraved and described in this work. 

 We know that, at an early period, the intaglios had been 

 imitated by many of the eastern religious sects in the form of 

 cabalistic seals, some of which are found in the Blacas 

 collection, which are known by the name of Abraxas. The 

 Mahometans also, no doubt, borrowed the practice of engraving 

 on precious stones from the Romans and Greeks, and they used 

 them for the same purposes, as signets and seals, but they 

 presented one special point of difference with both the seals 

 of the Greeks and Romans, and with the Abraxas, a difference 

 which of course belonged to their religions ideas. They are 

 distinguished by the total absence of all figures, only letters 

 being engraved upon them. These inscriptions are generally 

 of a more or less religious character, consisting usually of 

 short invocations or reflections, pious, moral, or superstitious. 

 A few of the older ones are of a talismanic, astrologic, or 

 cabalistic character. 



