By G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., M.P. 



71 



it as a gift from Mr. Barker, son of our consul at Beyrout, to 

 whom it was presented by an Arab Chieftain who wore it on 

 the front of his horse's chest, as a protection against the evil 

 eye. It is a crescent composed of two boar's tusks, joined by 

 a silver sheath just in the same manner as the Roman one found 

 at Wraxhall, but with the addition of three ornamental disks like 

 coins suspended from it. It was hung by a cord round the horse's 

 neck. (PI. iv. fig. 12.) On my communicating this remarkable pa- 

 rallel example to Mr. Franks of the British Museum, he recollected 

 being struck by a passage in a classical poet, Oalpurnius Siculus, to 

 which he referred me, where a favorite stag is represented as adorned 

 by a crescent ornament of this very kind, made, that is, of boar's 

 tusks. The description, as will be seen, corresponds most accurately 

 with the objeot. 



Oalpurnius Siculus. Ecloga v. 1. 43. 



" rutilo-que monilia torque 



Extrema cervice nitent, ubi pendulus apri 

 Dens sedet, et nivea distinguit pectora luna." 



i.e. " Around his throat the twisted necklace shines, 



Whence hanging the boar's tusks sit on his breast, 

 Which with a snowy crescent they adorn." 



But there is more than this. In a note to the edition of Oalpur- 

 nius Siculus which I consulted, reference is made to another passage 

 from Statius in which a similar ornament is described as attached 

 to a horse's breast. 



Statius. Book ix. 686. 



" nemorisque notse sub pectore primo 



Jactantur niveo lunata monilia dente." 



. ..." On his front breast is tossed 



A crescent neoklace formed of snowy teeth.^ 



In both cases although the word dens (tooth or tusk) is used in the 

 singular number, the ornament must, to produce a crescent form, 

 have been composed of two tusks joined together, as in the example 

 before us. 



Here then is evidence that two boar's tusks so framed into 

 a crescent were occasionally employed by the Romans as an orna- 



