A bronze ring of coarse workmanship and angular form. The device, two doves and a fish.

The shoulders of the following bronze ring are engraved as palm branches. The bezel is raised by four steps or tables, and engraved with a monogram. From Rome.

A bronze ring with high, projecting bezel. On the square face the subject of Abraham's sacrifice is deeply engraved. The execution may be attributed, perhaps, to the latter end of the third century, but, more probably, to the fourth. Brought from Viterbo.

O

Bronze ring, formed as a circle of half-round metal, engraved with a double-fluked anchor, crossed by one of a

single fluke, and surrounded by a pearl border. From the catacombs at Rome.

Bronze ring, with plain

rounded hoop. Device, a

draped female standing be

tween two birds. On either

side is the Christian monogram. Found, it is believed, in the catacombs of St. Calixtus ; date, fourth century of our era. An iron ring of octagonal form, the bezel engraved with two human figures and the sacred monogram. A human figure is represented on each face of the octagon. This is a remarkable ring of its class.

O

Bronze ring, with bezel shaped as the sole of a shoe, and incised with the legend IN DEO, in the collection of C. D. E. Fortnum, Esq., F.S.A.:

VIDED

In Montfaucon's 'L'Antiquité Expliquée' are several illustrations of Roman rings with the bezels representing a

human foot. One seems to have been a Christian seal, the inscription on which, DEDONAO, is there, perhaps, put for DEI DONA. Montfaucon mentions one in his own cabinet, inscribed, between two crosses, DEI DONA.

A bronze stamp, formed as the sole of a shoe, is preserved in the Christian Museum of the Vatican. Inscription reversed, SPES IN DEO.

A child's ring of gold. A simple hoop, flattened out on the bezel, which is engraved with the palm-branch. This ring was found in a child's tomb in the neighbourhood of Rome.

Bronze ring, the bezel engraved with the sacred monogram, round which is placed the inscription, COSME VIVAS. This was discovered in one of the catacombs on the Via Appia.

A small iron ring, on which is engraved the lion of St. Mark, dating, probably, from the sixth century. Found in a

Coptic grave near the temple of ' Medinet Aboo,' at Thebes.

T

Mr. Hodder M. Westropp, in his Handbook of Archæology,' remarks that Christian inscriptions are all funeral, and are, for the most part, found in the Catacombs, or subterranean cemeteries of the early Christians in Rome. They are characterised by symbols and formulæ, peculiar to the Christian creed; the idea of another life-a life beyond the grave usually prevails in them. The symbols found in connection with the funeral inscriptions are of three kinds; the larger proportion of these refer to the profession of Christianity, its doctrines and its graces. A second class, of a partly secular description, only indicate the trades of the deceased, and the remainder represent proper names; thus a lion must be named as a proper name, Leo; Onager, an ass; a dragon, Dracontius. Of the first kind the most usually met with is the monogram of Christ. The other symbols generally in use are the ship, the emblem of the church; the fish, the emblem of Christ; the palm, the symbol of martyrdom; the anchor, representing hope in immortality; the dove, peace; the stag, reminding the faithful of the pious aspiration of the Psalmist; the horse was the emblem of strength in the faith; the hunted hare, of persecution; the peacock and the phoenix stood for signs of the resurrection; Christ, as the good pastor, and the A- of the Apocalypse, was also introduced in the epitaphs. Even personages of the pagan mythology were introduced, which the Christians employed in a concealed sense, as Orpheus, enchanting the wild beasts with the music of his lyre was the secret symbol of Christ, as the civilizer of men, leading all nations to the faith. Ulysses, fastened to the mast of his ship, was supposed to present some faint resemblance to the Crucifixion.'

CHAPTER V.

BETROTHAL AND WEDDING RINGS.

It would be difficult to find a subject more interesting in all its associations than a wedding-ring. From the most remote times it has had a mystical signification, appealing to our most cherished feelings, hopes and wishes. The circular form of the ring was accepted in days by-gone, as a symbol of eternity, thus indicative of the stability of affection. We find some of our noted divines echoing the sentiments of old enthusiasts on the figurative virtues of a ring. Thus Dean Comber and Wheatley express themselves: 'The matter of which this ring is made is gold, signifying how noble and durable our affection is; the form is round, to imply that our respect (or regards) shall never have an end; the place of it is on the fourth finger of the left hand, where the ancients thought there was a vein that came directly from the heart, and where it may be always in view; and, being a finger least used, where it may be least subject to be worn out; but the main end is to be a visible and lasting token of the covenant which must never be forgotten.'

Jeremy Taylor, in his sermon on a 'Wedding-ring for the Finger,' conveys, in quaint and forcible language, the duties and responsibilities of married lite.1

1 See Appendix.