An ornament found in Cyprus, the intention of which is uncertain, finds its proper place in the present chapter, though we cannot attach it to any particular class of objects. It consists of a massive knob of solid agate, with a cylinder of the same both above and below, through which a rod, or bar, must have been intended to pass. Some archæologists see in it the top of a sceptre;[1267] others, the head of a mace;[1268] but there is nothing really to prove its use. We might imagine it the adornment of a throne or chair of state, or the end of a chariot pole, or a portion of the stem of a candelabrum. Antiquity has furnished nothing similar with which to compare it; and we only say of it, that, whatever was its purpose, so large and so beautiful a mass of agate has scarcely been met with elsewhere.[1269] The cutting is such as to show very exquisitely the veining of the material. Bronze objects in almost infinite variety have been found on Phoenician sites,[1270] but only a few of them can have been personal ornaments. They comprise lamps, bowls, vases, jugs, cups, armlets, anklets, daggers, dishes, a horse’s bit, heads and feet of animals, statuettes, mirrors, fibulæ, buttons, &c. Furniture would seem to have been largely composed of bronze, which sometimes formed its entire fabric, though generally confined to the ornamentation. Ivory was likewise employed in considerable quantities in the manufacture of furniture,[1271] to which it was applied as an outer covering, or veneer, either plain, or more generally carved with a pattern or with figures. The “ivory house” of Ahab[1272] was perhaps so called, not so much from the application of the precious material to the doors and walls, as from its employment in the furniture. There is every probability that it was the construction of Phoenician artists. CHAPTER XIII--PHOENICIAN WRITING, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE The Phoenician alphabet--Its wide use--Its merits--Question of its origin--Its defects--Phoenician writing and language-- Resemblance of the language to Hebrew--In the vocabulary-- In the grammar--Points of difference between Phoenician and Hebrew--Scantiness of the literature--Phoenician history of Philo Byblius--Extracts--Periplus of Hanno--Phoenician epigraphic literature--Inscription of Esmunazar--Inscription of Tabnit--Inscription of Jehav-melek--Marseilles inscription--Short inscriptions on votive offerings and tombs--Range of Phoenician book-literature.