The intaglios of the Phoenicians are either on cylinders or on gems, and can rarely be distinguished, unless they are accompanied by an inscription, from the similar objects obtained in such abundance from Babylonia and Assyria.  They reproduce, with scarcely any variation, the mythological figures and emblems native to those countries—­the forms of gods and priests, of spirits of good and evil, of kings contending with lions, of sacred trees, winged circles, and the like—­scarcely ever introducing any novelty.  The greater number of the cylinders are very rudely cut.  They have been worked simply by means of a splinter of obsidian,[787] and are barbarous in execution, though interesting to the student of archaic art.  The subjoined are specimens.  No. 1 represents a four-winged genius of the Assyrian type, bearded, and clad in a short tunic and a long robe, seizing with either hand a winged griffin, or spirit of evil, and reducing them to subjection.  In the field, towards the two upper corners, are the same four Phoenician characters, twice repeated; they designate, no doubt, the owner of the cylinder, which he probably used as a seal, and are read as Harkhu.[788] No. 2, which is better cut than No. 1, represents a king of the Persian (Achaemenian) type,[789] who stands between two rampant lions, and seizes each by the forelock.  Behind the second lion is a sacred tree of a type that is not uncommon; and behind the tree is an inscription, which has been read as l’Baletan—­i.e. “(the seal) of Baletan."[790] This cylinder was found recently in the Lebanon.[791] Nos. 3 and 4 come from Salamis in Cyprus, where they were found by M. Alexandre Di Cesnola,[792] the brother of the General.  No. 3 represents a robed figure holding two nondescript animals by the hind legs; the creatures writhe in his grasp, and turn their heads towards him, as though wishing to bite.  The remainder of the field is filed with detached objects, scattered at random—­two human forms, a griffin, two heads of oxen, a bird, two balls, three crosses, a sceptre, &c.  The forms are, all of them, very rudely traced.  No. 4 resembles in general character No. 3, but is even ruder.  Three similar robed figures hold each other’s hands and perhaps execute a dance around some religious object.  Two heads of oxen or cows, with a disk between their horns, occupy the spaces intervening between the upper parts of the figures.  In the lower portion of the field, the sun and moon fill the middle space, the sun, moon, and five planets the spaces to the right and to the left.  Another cylinder from the same place (No. 5)[793] is tolerably well designed and engraved.  It shows us two persons, a man and a woman, in the act of presenting a dove to a female, who is probably the goddess Astarte, and who willingly receives it at their hands.  Behind Astarte a seated lion echoes the approval of the goddess by raising one of his fore paws, while a griffin, who wholly disapproves of the offering, turns his back in disgust.