18	NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
	specimens completely disfigured by the wretched abortions in the way of intagli cut upon them, evidently the produc­tions of the very decrepitude of the art. Nevertheless, many tolerable, and a few excellent intagli do occur on Garnet, but for the most part on the Almandine, a testimony to the superior estimation in which that variety has ever been held. That very intaglio to which, as Köhler justly observes, neither ancient nor modern art has ever produced an equal as regards the skill and industry displayed in its execution, the "Head of the Dog Sirius" (Marlborough), is engraved in a perfect Indian Garnet of unusual size and beauty. The impression from this intaglio presents the head in full relief, with open jaws, the interior of the mouth represented with miraculous fidelity ; and its value still further enhanced by the legend on the collar, ÃÁÉ02 ÅÐÏÉÅÉ. The antiquity of this work has been disputed, without much cause : certain it is that tho artist Natter, to whom it has been assigned, was far from capable of pro­ducing such a masterpiece. A smaller replica of the same head on an Almandine is in my possession; the hot and fiery nature of the stone was doubtless regarded as analogous to the subject upon it, the blazing Dog-Star. Another famous Almandine is that of the same cabinet, engraved in the highest style of Roman art with the heads of Socrates and Plato ; a gem which aboye all other antique remains has served to identify the portrait of the latter philosopher. A few fine heads besides in this stone might be quoted, but such are of excessive rarity, and belong all to Imperial times. The Sassanian kings, however, frequently appear upon this gem ; in fact, it would seem to be have been regarded by the later Persians as a royal stone, from the preference they have given it for the bearer of the sovereign's image and superscription.