424 
ANTIQUITIES. 
unicorn bull. The bare-headed figure wears no ornaments; 
probably a mark of religious respect to the presence of the 
deity he approaches ; but the etherial personage, so often no¬ 
ticed hovering over represented majesty at Nakshi Roustam, 
Persepolis, and Resitoon, is here seen over the head of this 
unadorned person. The august bearded figure he seems to 
address, possesses the often-mentioned symbol of divinity. “ The 
statues of the gods of these people (the Chaldagans) held sceptres, 
axes, and other weapons, with candles burning before them.” 
Baruch, chap. vi. The floating figure in the rays clearly points 
out a close affinity between the religious systems of the Chal- 
daeans and ancient Persians ; shewing, in fact, that they used 
the same symbolical representations, also prefigured the same 
gods and their attributes, in the sun and moon: and hence it 
appears probable, that the alleged difference between the two 
religions chiefly lay in the one worshipping the imaged symbols 
as gods ; while the other restricted itself to adoring the heavenly 
host in themselves alone. The Chaldasans’ idolatry is usually 
styled Sabianism ; and they pretended to derive it from Sabius, 
a son of Seth ; well implying, by such a tradition, in what man¬ 
ner the first patriarchs of the world had corrupted themselves. 
The group under description is the best cylindrical specimen of 
the kind I ever met with. Bochart, in speaking of sacred stones , 
says, “ They were highly venerated in the heathen world ; were 
of a round form, and supposed to be animated by a portion of 
the divinity to whom they were dedicated.” This extraordinary 
inspiration into dead matter was effected by means of magical 
ceremonies, after which the stone might be consulted as an 
oracle. This sort of bosom-god was usually suspended from 
the neck of the person who was so happy as to possess it. The 
