We have a most interesting and instructive illustration of the value of modern research among the relics of antiquity in the fact that in 1854, Sir Henry Rawlinson, in deciphering the inscriptions on some cylinders found in the ruins of Um-Kir (the ancient Ur of the Chaldees), made historical discoveries in regard to the last King of Babylon that confirmed the truth of the book of Daniel, and harmonized discrepancies between Holy Scripture and profane history which up to that time had been hopelessly irreconcilable. Among the bequests from Persia many gems are engraved on the hardest and most precious stones; they present us with portraits of their monarchs, deities, legends, religious creeds, and seals of office. Though rude, they are exceedingly interesting from their antiquity and as being the achievements of a people so remote from the European centre of civilization. [Illustration] [Illustration] THE ETRUSCANS--ETRURIA. The country of the ancient Etruscans was north from the Tiber to the Ciminian Forest and the Tolfa Mountains. They have bequeathed us a mass of gems, a large proportion in the form of Scarabei, and many really fine intaglios, which were not only used as seals, but served as decorations, both in finger-rings and as brooches for women. The Etruscan tombs have yielded many Scarabei in mountings of virgin gold, sometimes the precious metal twisted, again corrugated; also some ornamental gold work as brooches. The sard and chalcedony beetles usually had an engraved beaded margin, and were revolvable, being set on a pivot which was attached to a frame generally oval in form. The Etruscans, unlike their predecessors, have left us few examples other than the very gems and Scarabei by which to study their glyptic work. We have the decorations of their sepulchral homes; we know of their costumes by their mural paintings in those subterranean chambers. Their glyptic style is unique; a series of deeply-drilled cavities, afterward joined to one another, forming designs frequently contorted by the artist in his endeavor to bring his subject into the very limited space of the under face of the Scarabeus. [Illustration: ETRUSCAN.] The Etruscans probably borrowed the idea of the Scarabeus form of gem from the Egyptians; they certainly shaped it more beautifully. They seem to have adopted only the symbol. There was a difference in the quality of their Scarabei corresponding with the classes or stations in the life of the people; those cut for royalty, nobility, or the wealthy naturally received more attention in forming and finishing. Those for the tradespeople, the well-to-do, we find quite a distinctive order. In this group they are less graceful in shape, the beetles are rounder, thicker, and shorter, not so carefully finished, as also the simpler borders formed of two lines just within the edge, either crossed with regular, straight, or oblique lines forming bars, with some little variety of pattern.