CHAP. IV.—BAKHAKHUIU, THE LAWYER OE SAN. 
49 
with a hoop apparently around the body, represent¬ 
ing the colure. Nexttothafcwemayperhaps discern 
the horns and fore-part of Taurus remaining. 
Except perhaps some of the legs of Cancer, nothing 
hut unintelligible scraps of gilding remain until we 
reach Capricornus : there is here the goat to the 
left, with a dolphin’s tail arching up into the sky, 
just as on modern globes. Aquarius is not intel¬ 
ligible, although much of the gilding remains, and 
Pisces is entirely lost. Thus there remain but 
two of the twelve signs. 
Within these are two more circles of gilding, 
5-1 and 4'6 inches diameter. The central object 
of gold foil and paint is too much injured for any 
immediate understanding of it; perhaps from 
analogy of other decorations it may be interpreted 
in future. In the corners of the square, outside 
the outer circle, there have been devices of gold foil; 
these are now lost, except that above Taurus, 
which is however unintelligible. Stars marked by 
small squares of gold foil are scattered about the 
corner objects. 
Such was the design of this unique piece of 
work. But it has suffered injury in every way. 
First it was dashed down, and broken into about 
two hundred pieces. Then many of these were 
so heated in the burning of the house as to lose 
their shape, some bending at right angles, others 
melting into lumps. After that it lay buried in 
damp earth, which loosened all the gilding, and 
made nearly all of it come off so soon as the glass 
was lifted up. Next, the surface of the glass is so 
much decomposed that it scales off very readily. 
Lastly, it was dug up bit by bit by the Arabs who 
were clearing the house. I came on the ground 
in time to clear one corner myself, and lift it 
piece by piece, and of this part there are only two 
or three small scraps missing; but I so despaired 
of ever putting it together, or indeed of making 
out any connected subject, that the heap of earth 
already moved was left unsearched. This fol¬ 
lowing season I have recovered a dozen more 
pieces, which will go far toward completing 
it. I have succeeded in placing 140 pieces 
in position; and there remain 21 small chips 
unfixed. The pieces I have fastened with varnish 
on a sheet of glass, rather wider than the 
original square. This will be found in the British 
Museum, and, so far as I can gather, it is the only 
Roman zodiac found in Egypt, the only series of 
the emblematic heads of the months, and almost 
the only example of painting on glass in ancient 
times. 
61. Another glass object, nearly as rare, is a 
plano-convex lens, two and a half inches across, and 
half an inch thick (section in pi. xii. 30.). Some 
lenses have been found at Pompeii in an engraver’s 
shop, and I have heard that one was found in 
Egypt, but yet this is such an unusual object 
that we may note the reasons for believing it to 
be a lens. It is of remarkably clear and colour¬ 
less glass; it has been highly polished on both 
sides ; and on the middle of the convex face a 
small patch is worn rough by rubbing about. 
Now the only other use it can have been applied 
to is for setting as a boss in a breast-plate, or 
some such ornament; but if so it would probably 
be coloured to imitate garnet or emerald, and 
the wear would be diffused over the face, and 
not all in one spot as on this. The surface 
is now all decomposed by the damp earth, 
and though retaining its polish it is translucent 
milky white, and liable to scale off. (B.M.) 
A piece of another lens was also found in this 
house. 
Other smaller objects in glass are a stamped 
piece of a delicate opaque lavender colour, im¬ 
pressed with a lotus flower, and slightly iridescent, 
(kept at Bulak); part of a moulded glass cup with 
a fluted pattern on it; pieces of ribbed glass 
vessels ; a piece of green glass tube IJ in. 
long, i in. across outside, with a hole .IX- in. 
wide (B.M.); four green glass balls f in. 
diameter (1 in B.M.), probably for some game ; 
the body of a green glass flask, the neck broken 
off; a quantity of glass beads, spherical, with a 
few broad flutings around each: pottery beads 
H 
