416 
RELICS AT SUSA. 
torious army of Theodosius to save it from destruction. But to 
attempt deciphering any one of these occult treasures of ancient 
learning, I own to be far beyond my skill; yet it is an object of 
no small interest, to compare the signs thus spread over the 
relics of Egypt, Persia, Chaldea, &c., with each other, and then 
to parallel their appearances with the corresponding religious 
perversions of those nations, their wild astrological superstitions, 
their deification of the planets ; then their typifying the gods 
they placed there, by supposed resemblances in the elements, 
in metals, in birds, beasts, trees, and molten or carved images ; 
and, at last, worshipping all these various symbols as separate 
intelligences, ruling the universe by fatal influences, and yet 
subject themselves to certain spells imprinted on a piece of brass 
or stone! All these observations combine to give me one im¬ 
pression, that the great apostates of the land of Shinar, “ when 
the whole earth was of one language,” were the fathers of this 
idolatrous, complex, and mysterious worship, with its various 
signs ; and that on their dispersion as a people, they carried it 
into all the lands where we now find it. The cylinders of Baby¬ 
lon, I consider to have been some of these enchanted, protections 
from the stars, which the combinations of figures on their sides 
probably pourtray in the form of a prayer, or a blessing ; and 
which sacred amulet was worn suspended round the neck of the 
favoured person. 
The second relic of Susa, which drew the particular attention 
of Major Monteith, was a white marble stone, found, the der- 
vise told him, in the great mound of the palace, near to the 
tomb of the prophet. It does not exceed ten inches in width 
and depth, measures twenty in length, and is hollow within, 
as if to receive some deposit. Three of its sides are cut in 
bas-relief; two of them with similar representations of a man, 
