RELICS AT SUSA. 
415 
Besides this face of hieroglyphics, two sides of the stone are 
occupied by inscriptions in the cuneiform character. At the 
head of one of them was a double row of natural objects, which 
my friend omitted to draw ; but he told me he thought they 
were birds. 
On comparing the present object with the cylinders of Baby¬ 
lon, we find the same hieroglyphical figures occur in both ; the 
sun, the crescent, the star; also the dog, and those singularly 
formed shapes which I have denominated symbolical instru¬ 
ments ; deeming them signs invented by the framers of this 
mysterious language, to designate the attributes, or peculiar laws 
of the gods, or ruling powers, prefigured in the more apparent 
symbols. The cross, indeed, (in wonderful coincidence,) is gene¬ 
rally understood to be symbolical of the divinity, or eternal life; 
and the Egyptian priests urged its being found engraved on the 
walls of their temple of Serapis, as an argument with the vie- 
