astonishingly
small, so much so that it will not pass down onto the third
finger-joint of an average man's hand, and would only fit the very
slender finger of a woman.9 Some remarkably fine rings are
in the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. Among them two serpentine rings of gold are
well worth noting. In one of these the coil has six turns which are
brazed together; at either end is a ram's head. The other ring shows a
serpent of two full coils, with erect head and curved neck and tail ;
scales are marked at the ends. The bands of the ring are smooth and
plain.10 Many of the rings are of the swivel type and are
set with artistically engraved scarabs. In one of these the scarab is
of green plasma, translucent but somewhat clouded ; the cutting is well
executed. The bottom shows two wrestlers, each entirely nude with the
exception of a short ribbed apron about the loins. Behind each is an
erect urœus (the serpent emblem of Egyptian divinities and kings), with
wings like those of the goddess Mut, extended in protection. Between
the wrestlers, on the ground, is an object resembling a wolf's head.
The bow and collet of this signet are of gold. The plasma scarab in
another of these swivel rings has been pronounced to be a perfect
example of this form. The stone is a pure green and the scarab has been
decorated with two seated, winged andro-sphinxes (with man's head and
lion's body), the paws raised before the sacred tree between them; the
symbol
8 Adolph Furtwängler, " Die Antiken Gemmen," Leipzig and Berlin, 1900, vol. iii, p. 81.
10 A
descriptive atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by Louis P. di Cesnola, vol.
iii, pt. i, New York, 1903, pi. xxiv, Nos. 12 and 13.
