k, marble, granite, agate, onyx, green and red jasper, crystal or
lapis-lazuli, into one of those marvellous seals which are now found by
the hundred scattered throughout the museums of Europe. They had to be
rounded, reduced to the proper proportions, and polished, before the
subject or legend could be engraved upon them with the burin. To drill a
hole through them required great dexterity, and some of the lapidaries,
from a dread of breaking the cylinder, either did not pierce it at all,
or merely bored a shallow hole into each extremity to allow it to
roll freely in its metallic mounting. The tools used in engraving were
similar to those employed at the present day, but of a rougher kind. The
burin, which was often nothing more than a flint point, marked out the
area of the design, and sketched out the figures; the saw was largely
employed to cut away the depressions when these required no detailed
handling; and lastly, the drill, either worked with the hand or in
a kind of lathe, was made to indicate the joints and muscles of the
individual by a series of round holes. The object thus summarily dealt
with might be regarded as sufficiently worked for ordinary clients; but
those who were willing to pay for them could obtain cylinders from which
every mark of the tool had been adroitly removed, and where the beauty
of the workmanship vied with the costliness of the material.

[Illustration: 315.jpg CHALDAEAN CYLINDER EXHIBITING TRACES OF THE
DIFFERENT TOOLS USED BY THE ENGRAVER]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure in Menant's
_Catalogue de la collection de M. de Clercq_

The seal of Shargani, King of Agade, that of Bingani-shar-ali, and many
others which have been picked up by chance in the excavations, are
true bas-reliefs, reduced and condensed, so to speak, to the space of
something like a square inch of surface, but conceived with an artistic
ingenuity and executed with a boldness which modern engravers have
rarely equalled and never surpassed. There are traces on them, it is
true, of some of the defects which disfigured the latter work of the
Assyrians--heaviness of form, exaggerated prominence of muscles
and hardness of outline--but there are also all the qualities which
distinguish an original and forcible art.

The countries of the Euphrates were renowned in classic times for the
beauty of the embroidered and painted stuffs which they manufactured.*
Nothing has come down to us of these Ba