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SALAMIS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS.
BY ALEXANDER PALMA DI CESNOLÀ, F.S.A.,
page 46

"in this inscription are very remarkable. Thus we have new forms for a, yi, 0, lu, and ye. The use of συλη for ' sacrilege', of the future λυσιye, and of yινιπâ (from ενιπαω) in the sense of bringing a charge against, is also to be noticed. The purport of the inscription is curious in other respects." Similar inscribed rolls of lead, containing the answers of the Oracle, have been discovered by M. Karapanos on the site of Dodona. I regret very much that Mr. C. T. Newton, to whom I submitted some of these rolls, was, as he tells me, unable to undertake to decipher them, on account of other work on which he was engaged. Seals or Stamps.—Classed with these ancient remains and municipal documents are eight leaden seals from Salamis. They are of Byzantine and early Venetian origin, and they bear monogram inscriptions, or, rather, merchants' marks, very like those familiar to all students of mediaeval antiquities.1 On one, a representation of St. Nicholas,2 on another, the head of St. Peter, appear. This is the reverse of a stamp, similar to another in the same collection. A third bears an

is pierced with transverse holes, through which a cord could be passed, so that the seal might be used to bind baggage or other goods in the manner still in vogue; the lead, being pressed down on the cord, secured the package. These relics have been sought for and treasured up in later times by the ignorant people who found them, and believed they must need be charms, because such things were beyond the scope of their knowledge of trade and property. By these persons the seals were again pierced, and attached by strings, so that they might be hung about the necks of their children, and thus do duty as amulets against the Evil Eye; whereas they were designed centuries ago to keep light fingers from surreptitiously conveying goods of value from the rightful owner to another who had no claim upon them. The accompanying illustration (fig. 84) shows a relic in lead, representing a very elegant head of a youth enclosed in a cabled border, which, in its turn, is encircled by a beaded rim or circlet. It was perhaps a badge or ornament, for application to· the dress or to a small work of art. The way in which the hair is represented on this head very closely resembles the treatment of the hair on the heads of Eros or Cupid, as shewn in the terra-cotta and bronze figures of that divinity.

1 See Plate vi, fig. 3.
2 Ibid., figs. 8, 9.
3 Ibid., fig. 10
4 "Sergius, Scrivener of Cyprus." See Plate vi, fig. 11.

IVORY OBJECTS.

SEALS OR KINGS—CARVINGS BOXES—SPOONS—ARTICLES FOR THE TOILET, ETC.

MONG the relics in this material are two to which I may, in the first instance, call attention. They are large seals or rings, and were, doubtless, intended for securing amphora?, or other vessels, by impressing wax with the private marks of the owners of the vessels. In Nineveh, it was found that a similar practice of sealing had been in vogue. Certain chambers were found to have been closed by placing lumps of clay against the doors and their jambs, and impressing on the soft material the official or state seals of the proper officers.1 Amphorae of wine have been found still

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