14 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
CHAP, sovereigns. Neither is this conjecture unsup- 
ported by the mythological figure which is 
represented, in exquisite sculpture, upon the 
exterior surface of the vase itself. It consists 
of an entire mass of green jasper-agate, beau- 
tifully variegated with veins and spots of a 
vermilion colour; so that one part of it exhibits 
the ribbon-jasper, and another the blood-stone. 
The handle is so formed as to represent the 
head of a griffin (carved in all the perfection of 
the finest cam^o), whose extended wings and 
claws cover the outside of the vase. The 
difficulty of cutting a siliceous concretion of 
such extraordinary durability needs not to be 
specified : it may be presumed, that the entire 
life of the antient lapidary, by whom it was 
wrought, was barely adequate to the under- 
taking; nor do we know in what manner such 
works were effected. Yet there are parts of the 
sculpture where the sides of the vase remain as 
thin as the finest porcelain '. 
(1) I have seen similar instances of sculpture, executed even in harder 
substances; and the Chinese possess the art of perfecting such works. 
There exists a very remarkable manufactory of this kind at Cambai/, in 
the Guzerat, in India. The author lately saw some beautiful models of 
pieces of artillery, which, with tlieir carriages and wheels, had been exe- 
cuted, each out of one entire mass of red Carneliaii stone, by the natives 
of Camhay. Tlie English Resident, Mr, Shrine, who presided over the 
-manufactory, and to whom these models belong, affirms, that the Carne- 
lians undergo the action of fire before they are worked. It is probable 
that 
