320 On a Cylinder and certain Gems, [No. 124. 



sion ; a friend to whom I entrusted it, for the purpose of examination, 

 having mislaid, or lost it. 



My readers will at once detect on Fig. 2, characters similar to those 

 of Conolly's gem of the hand and ear, noticed by me in No. 122 of 

 the Journal, and of other gems already published in this Journal. 

 They are boldly and elegantly cut, as are also the wild goat's 

 head, and the palm leaves (?) which complete the device. The gem 

 is on basalt, which has been cut down to form a surface for the 

 execution of the carving. The whole has then been roughly polished, 

 and the stone drilled, to allow of a string or ribbon being passed 

 through it. The perforation so made, is about a third of an inch in 

 diameter, and is cut in a clean and workmanlike manner. Its large 

 size, compared with that of the gem itself, is perhaps indicative of the 

 value attached to the amulet, its wearer being desirous of securing it by 

 as strong and thick a ligature as possible ? I conjecture the device to have 

 some planetary allusion. Might one suppose it zodaical, and detect Capri- 

 corn in the goat's head? It is given in its full size in the plate, but 

 without a side view, which would have shewn the perforation, and the 

 whole bulk of the gem. 



No. 3. — Is on crystal, the head Sassanian; a variation of the charac- 

 ters (?) the execution good. 



No. 4. — Red cornelian, a man driving before him a humped bull. 

 The characters are indistinct, and the execution coarse : the reverse of 

 the gem plain and highly polished. 



No. 5. — Sardonyx, the characters similar to those of No. 2, and 

 beautifully executed. I fail, however, entirely to make out what the 

 central object is intended for ; a conch shell ? This stone by its shape and 

 size, appears to have been intended for a seal ring. 



No. 6. — Red cornelian, it is carved on both obverse and reverse, and 

 carefully polished : the former slightly convex, the latter flat. The cha- 

 racter is evidently the ancient form, used for the earliest Pali inscriptions. 

 My Pundit, Sarodha Prasad, professes to read the reverse in Pali, 

 TlHTf%TT^Tr%3[ which rendering Pundit Kamala Kanta concurs 

 in. The obverse is perhaps the abbreviated form of some ordinary man- 

 date, as the characters appear arbitrary, and the meaning of the reverse, (as 

 read by the Pundits,) maha mohe maga samadesh, carries out the infer- 

 ence, it being, " command of him who is first in dignity." (?) I give the 



