And one line upon it has been construed into _Paaneah_, the name bestowed by Pharaoh on Joseph. This signifies, in combination with “_Zaphnath_,” either, _the Revealer of Secrets_, or, _the Preserver of the World_. A discovery of the ring of Suphis and that which Pharaoh gave to Joseph appears to border on the marvellous; and, yet, such things were and gentleness of climate may allow us to suppose that they still exist,--while modern energy, science and learning are so laying bare the world’s sepulchre of the past that we ought not to disbelieve at the suggested resurrection of any thing. In excavations recently made in Persia, the palace of Shushan and the tomb of Daniel have probably been found; and also the very pavement described in Esther, i. 6, “of red and blue and white and green marble.”[256] § 2. Hannibal carried his death in his ring, which was a singular one. When the Roman ambassadors required the king of Bythinia to give Hannibal up, the latter, on the point of the king’s doing so, swallowed poison, which he always carried about in his ring. In the late war between America and Mexico, rings were found upon the fingers of dead officers of the latter country. These opened and, it is said, a poisonous substance was discovered; and there is a notion that the owners of these rings were ready to act the part of Hannibal: poison themselves rather than become prisoners. The Romans were very curious in collecting cases of rings, (_dactylothecæ_,) many of which are mentioned as being at Rome; among these was that which Pompey the Great took from Mithridates and dedicated to Jupiter in the Capitol.[257]