These traffickers also did a thriving trade with the living: many provided themselves in advance. There were always a variety from which to choose; the engraver had them for every taste. They were inscribed with just such vows or wishes for the future and the repose or the enjoyment of the soul, or the commending of the soul to the patronage and protection of some special god or deess, as the case might demand for a man or a woman. Often selections were given from the poetic devotional writings of their mentors, and frequently we meet with selections from the Book of the Dead. We find shreds and examples of the costumes of the occupants of graves of other ancient nations. These garments were made, as now, that the body might be decorously placed at rest. This we also find in Egypt, the mummy-wrappings concealing and protecting the Scarabei presenting this beautiful sentiment, indeed unique--a symbol that was worn in life, emblematic of its ephemeral tenure and of the ultimate resurrection from death and the grave; a symbol that accompanied its owner to the narrow home, not to ornament it, but as a token of that tenant’s belief that this would be only a brief occupancy; a symbol ready to be worn when that tenant should enter on his resurrection into an eternal lease of joy in a world beyond. [Illustration] PERSIA AND BABYLON. We are particularly interested in the curious and elaborately engraved cylinders and seals of the Assyrians, Persians, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, the Hittites, which not only give us their costumes, but are laden with cuneiform inscriptions. In my collection there is a gem of the same style of work as the stone slab in the University Museum procured by Professor H. V. Hilprecht from the ancient palace of Ashurna Sirbal, King of Assyria 884 to 860 B. C. [Illustration] This glyptic specimen is in miniature, engraved on a rich wine-colored dark sard bearing a portrait of King Sapor I.; he was the second of the Sassanians, who reigned in the third century. He was crowned in the year 242 A. D. It is surrounded by an inscription in Sassanian. Sapor’s invasion of Palmyra and his contests with the forces of Zenobia are interesting incidents of that romantic episode in Oriental history. [Illustration: PERSIAN AND SASSANIAN SEALS.] Cylinders are evidently the oldest form of seals, though it is believed that the art originated on sections of wooden reeds. We find Chaldean cylinders now more than 4000 years old. The signets of kings in the cylindric form were incised in the harder and more precious materials, such as chalcedony in several hues, the fairest those tinged with a sapphire tint (though not the most ancient), sards, carnelians, and occasionally beautiful red jasper; hematite in abundance; serpentine and many softer stones, alabaster, steatite, etc.