" On Gnostic Amulets " 



183 



Following- down the stream of history we have the intaglio-cutting 

 of the names of the twelve tribes on the high priest's breastplate, 

 and these on very hard and valuable stones — some of the presents, 

 perhaps, with which the Egyptians seem to have bribed Israel at 

 the last to leave their land. And let me remind my hearers that 

 such works of art are practically almost indestructible, and almost 

 certainly exist at the present day, whether as some suppose, at the 

 bottom of the Mediterranean, or in the Sultan's treasury at Con- 

 stantinople, or dispersed among private hands, which little know 

 their meaning or history. In an age which has found and deciphered 

 Sennacherib's seal, and which possesses the actual clay impression 

 which ratified the treaty between himself and his Egyptian enemy, is it 

 quite preposterous to hope that these priceless intaglios may, some 

 of them at least, come to light ? 



I have spoken of the materials used for these intaglios. An 

 objection has been raised that the cutting of such hard stones would 

 have been impossible to such an uncivilized horde as the Israelites 

 were. But, centuries before this, rock crystal (as this specimen shows) 

 and I believe even harder stones were engraved by the Chaldseans and 

 Egyptians, and the art may well have been learned by some at least 

 of the subject nation. These crystal cylinders are, however, the 

 exception. Black or greenish serpentine or hcematite were the 

 commonest materials used in Chaldaea, and later in Assyria, and in 

 my own small collection three-fourths of the seals are of these. 

 The cylinders or seals are pierced, and were worn on the wrist by a 

 soft cord passing through them. You will remember the various 

 allusions in the Old Testament to the signet upon the hand. Saul's 

 bracelet, brought to David on his death, was probably the royal seal. 

 In this use they contrasted with the Egyptian beetle seals, which, 

 though pierced, seem to have been worn in a ring or metal handle. 

 These, again, were — even when used by royal personages — generally 

 made of stealite or some soft stone (often of baked clay.) (I have 

 seen a magnificent exception to this, taken by its owner from the 

 neck of a royal mummy, of, I believe, yellow jasper, Sin. long, and 

 still attached to the gold chain with bronze collar which held it 

 round the neck.) 



o % 



