138 On the Gem and Coins described in Nos. 7 and 8. [No. 122. 



seal of a letter addressed to me by Mr. Tregear, had already attracted my 

 attention. I had written to him on the subject of its place of discovery, 

 and I had ascertained by reference to sufficient authorities, that the 

 " ancient giant with snaky legs," as Lieut. Cunningham so accurate- 

 ly describes it, was an emblem of Abraxas. The Ebermayer collection 

 of gems, as illustrated by Bayer, has no less than eight similar, or nearly 

 similar gems : six of these represent, a giant with a whip in the left hand, 

 a shield on the right arm, the head of a cock, (the head in Tregear's gem, 

 has the horns of a stag, as has one of the Eber. gems : it is apparently 

 human in the coin of Telephus,) and snaky legs : the attitude is in 

 all the same ; the two other of these gems in the Ebermayer collection 

 differ, by having the head of a lion, and of a hawk instead of a cock. 

 My note book gives me the following abstract (from Tennison's Ido- 

 latry, which I have not at hand for reference) of the obscure and 

 singular worship of this deity.* " Abraxas was, according to the Basili- 

 deans, a visionary sect, which nourished in the second century, (taking 

 their name from Basilides of Alexandria, their founder,) the sacred 

 name of the author of the Cycle of 365 days, expressed in the value of 

 the letters composing it according to the numeration of the Greeks. 

 a 1. /3 2. p 100. a 1. £ 60. al.g 200 = 365. 



It was the synonym of Abracadabra, a God worshipped by the 

 Syrians, the same who is expressed by the emblem of a year (a circle) 

 with the letters of his name triangularly disposed within it." It was 

 essentially a Solar or Mithraic system of worship. 



The learned and acute Bayer, in his illustration of the Ebermayer gems, 

 observes of the Basilideans, that they and others who inclined to their 

 doctrine, pretended to inscribe the planetary emblems, and their powers 

 on gems and metals. " Basidiliani, aliique eorum sectatores, confidunt 

 se programmata siderum, et eorum vires gemmis et metallis insculpere 

 posse." (Gemmarum Thesaurus, p. 210. cap. 432). This statement 

 he supports by numerous authorities. Now if we have before us in 

 Lieut. Cunningham's plate, both a gem and a coin inscribed, as I am 

 prepared to shew they are, with emblems of the solar power and in- 

 fluence, (confirming Lieut. Cunningham's sound suggestion as to the 



* The original authorities regarding this sect are, Tertullian, " De Reescriptioni- 

 bus," Hieronymus, Augustin, and Irenrcus. 



