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



that a corresponding admonition to connect this symbol with the memory 

 of a duty, or of an obligation, is conveyed by them in the language, 

 whatever it was, of which they were the vehicle. My readers will 

 observe, that I have not given these letters in the plate of the gem in its 

 natural size, and I much regret my inability to do so; it is owing partly 

 to the lithographer's having failed to copy them with exactness, and 

 partly to the annoying fact, that none of the four impressions which 

 I have of the gem, contains the whole inscription in perfection. The 

 gem, like many of those found in Khorassan and Afghanistan, is cut 

 on a convex surface, which enhances the difficulty of distinguishing 

 any marginal impressions, and the wax on which poor Conolly has taken 

 it off, is invariably of the worst description. Thus it is only by taking 

 the characters piecemeal from the several impressions, that I can verify 

 the reading given on the enlarged drawing of the original. The letters 

 are not dissimilar to those found on other gems from Afghanistan, 

 impressions of which are in my possession, and the most remarkable of 

 which are of a decidedly Mithraic character. 



It is idle almost to hazard conjecture, as to the language which was 

 expressed in these letters. A sort of affinity may be perhaps discovered 

 between the Syriac character and this, but in the present stage of our 

 ignorance, nothing can be advanced on the subject beyond the vaguest 

 conjecture. We have established, however, that the language, what- 

 ever it was, either allowed of the adoption of Greek words into it, which 

 were expressed in its peculiar character ; or that, adopting Greek habits 

 and superstitions, those who spoke this language translated into their 

 own tongue the apothegms or admonitory expressions, which accom- 

 panied particular symbols in vogue among a Grecian, or Grecised 

 people. Should circumstances admit of further research, this clue to 

 possible discovery will be valuable. In the mean time, not even the 

 most ingenious and acute could, I fear, derive definite conclusions from 

 the meagre facts before us. We have, however, seen a Champollion 

 unravel the mysteries of ^Egyptian hieroghyphies ; a Prinsep decypher 

 by a comparative process of, at first, apparently hopeless difficulty, the 

 unknown characters of more than one unspoken language ; a Rawlinson 

 verify the accounts of the Father of History, by his reading of the 

 cuneiform records of Persepolis : hence therefore I confidently believe 

 that, should further material for the comparison on a scale sufficiently 

 extensive be discovered in this unknown character, the elucidation of 



