Arngrim Jonas's Bracelet reminds me of a very remarkable passage in the Saxon Chronicle under the year 876, where, when the Danes made their peace with the English Alfred at Wareham in Wessex, they gave him the noblest amongst them as hostages, and swore oaths to him. upon the holy BRACELET.X Bracelets, as we learn from Bartholinus, were sometimes espousal presents. Virgins, it appears, did not usually wear them. From different passages in the Roman classics we learn that they were sometimes birthday presents. Placed among treasures, there was a superstition that a Bracelet would augment them. Lovers thought them efficacious; and ivory Armillæ were used in the cure of epilepsy." I now come to the Ornament upon the Society's Table. In shape, it unquestionably resembles a Bracelet, formed of two serpents coiled up. Its material, of bronze, does not make it objectionable; for the Society has already engraved more than one Bracelet of that metal found within His Majesty's dominions; b and the Hamilton Collection, in the British Museum, preserves at this moment a large number of Bracelets of that metal, of different weights and forms, one with no fewer than sixteen coils, found in the ruins of Pompeii. The coils of which the present Bracelet is formed, make no objection, although it must be acknowledged that most of the ancient Bracelets with numerous coils are elastic. A Bracelet of three hoops soldered together, found in Ireland, is engraved in the third Plate of the Second Volume of the Archæologia; and in a Collection X J him þa aðar spoɲon on þam halgan BEAGE.-Chron. Sax. edit. Gibs. p. 83. y Speaking of the ARMILLE Sponsalitiæ, p. 79, he says, "Caruerunt iis Virgines, Armillasque manibus suspendisse infra decorem putabatur. Hortatur enim Virgines B. Cyprianus (de Habitu Virginum,) ne inferant auribus vulnera, nec brachia includant, aut colla de ARMILLIS et monilibus pretiosa catena. Ratio pudoris manifesta. Nam a Viris dabantur, ut virginitati suæ irent exsequias, de qua, acceptis Armillis, transigebatur." z See other superstitions in Pliny, Hist. Nat. edit. Harduini, tom. ii, 451, 11. 472, 10. 531, 22. a See Pl. XXV. b Archæol. vol. x. pl. 13; vol. xiv. p. 92. • Montfaucon mentions having seen one of this kind on a Statue of Lucilla. of Plates of Antiquities, formed by our late Director, Mr. Combe, the Arm of a Skeleton occurs, found in a tomb, round which are entwined the coils of a very extended Bracelet, connected by two hoops of considerable breadth at the two extremities of the bone; and a Sepulchral Monument of the Roman time, engraved upon the same Plate, represents a male figure with a Bracelet on the right arm, the twines of which extend from the fleshy part of the limb to the wrist. Nor do the heads of the animals at the extremities of the ornament now exhibited form an objection. Serpents' heads appeared at the extremities of the golden Bracelet from Ireland, exhibited to the Society some years ago, by the Marquess of Lansdowne; and Beger has engraved a Bracelet ornamented at its ends with the heads of Rams. Several with Serpents heads occur in the British Museum in bronze. It is possible then that the Ornament exhibited by your Lordship may have been a Bracelet, not to be worn, but of Reward, or a Votive Offering, or perhaps from a Statue. The beauty of its manufacture makes sufficient amends for any deficiency in richness of metal; and even a votive Bracelet made at the period to which this must be referred, was likely in the North to be of BRONZE. Tacitus, your Lordship will recollect, in his delightful Treatise on the Manners of the Germans, mentions a remarkable fact, that at the time when he lived, gold and silver were unknown to the people of the North; he knew not, he says, whether to ascribe this to the favour or the wrath of Heaven. The very spot upon which the Ornament now on the Society's Table was found, formed, if I mistake not, a portion of that memorable country which Tacitus describes when commenting on the defeat of Galgacus. I do not mean to infer from this, that this Bracelet is of Celtic origin, but that the precious metals in the early part of the Roman period being but little used in the North, it can be no surprise to find Roman workmanship of the very best kind bestowed upon an Ornament of inferior metal. I am, my Lord, Your Lordship's faithful servant, XVIII. Notice of some Remains at Goza, near Malta. Communicated in a Letter from Captain W. H. SMYTH, R. N., F.R. S. and S. A., to THOMAS AMYOT, Esq. F. R. S. Trea surer. Read 8th May 1828. MY DEAR SIR, Crescent, Bedford, May 6th, 1828. I BEG to enclose you three Drawings, a shewing the situation and appearance of those primitive and colossal remains, existing on the island of Goza, called the "Giant's Tower" by the natives. I am only able to send you the mere Views, because the measurements I took, and the remarks I made upon the spot, were given to my late friend Colonel Otto Beyer, the then resident Governor. To this gentleman we owe the clearing out of these antiquities, and it was his intention to have submitted to the public a very detailed account of his Operations, but sudden death frustrated the measure. In the absence of the Colonel's researches, I may briefly state, that the inclosed Sketches give the appearance of the "Giant's Tower" sufficiently exact for those conversant in what are called Druidical, or Celtic structures, to estimate their probable uses. And as from the total want of literal, or symbolical characters, such uses, and the date of construction, must rest mainly upon vague and conjectural hypotheses, I send them rather as silent evidences of men and days beyond record, than as matter which can be discussed with any certainty. The erection of ponderous masses of stone was a practice both extensive and undefined, but from various vestiges existing wherever a See the Plates XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. early navigation was carried, they may be attributable to Punic or Phoenician origin. In support of this opinion, it may be proper to add, that Goza was the Gaulos of ancient geographers, and that it is now called Wadish, by the natives. It is rather higher than Malta, on which it is dependent, and is more fertile, its fruits, cottons, and sugar canes, being in great esteem. The edifices in question are near the district of Casal Rabatto, and they are constructed with the common calcareous sandstone of the vicinity. The present inhabitants are a temperate, and hardy race; and are so strongly attached to their country, that they endearingly term it "the Flower of the World." They are of an athletic, yet active form; but with a physiognomy, especially marked by the nose and lips, approaching to that of the Africans. Various Troglodytic grottos attest that a pastoral people occupied the site, at a very remote period: and a remarkable peculiarity in the agriculture of the island is, an immemorial practice of cultivating the declivities of hills, by means of successive terraces-a mode which has usually been termed "Canaanite," from the supposed country of its origin. Agreeably to written testimony, Malta was occupied by a colony of Phoenicians, an enterprizing people, versed alike in the arts of war and peace; and upon a comparison of various ancient authorities, the probable time of their first establishment was about 1500 years anterior to the Christian æra. Now, although Malta was frequently subjugated by other powers, the Phoenicians and Carthaginians became so identified with the Phæacians, or supposed aborigines of the island, that the subsequent intercourse with Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, and Spaniards, appears to have had but little comparative effect on the language, habits, or customs, of the Maltese. But in Goza this is more strikingly the case, on account of its secondary political importance; and could we but find an alphabet of their harsh jargon, in proof, I have little doubt that what is now considered merely in the light of an Arabic dialect, would turn out to be closely allied to the Punic tongue. From various geological evidences, it appears that Malta, and Goza, were once component parts of a larger mass; and that the channels by which they are now separated, were caused by a subsidence of the strata indeed, the cliffs of both islands, by the obvious freshness, and breadth, of the fractured faces, evince the loss which they have sustained. This fact is further confirmed, to the eye of the Antiquary, by vestiges of roads, close to the same cliffs; and also, by the scattered Cyclopean relics, which are met with in the investigation. I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, Yours truly, WILLIAM HENRY SMYTH. |