250 A History ov Art i Chald.ka and Assyria. fashion seems to have been, at one time, to fasten them to the wrist. In those tombs at Warka and Mugheir that we have described, the cylinders were found on the floors of the tomb- chambers, close to the wrist-bones of the skeletons ; and the latter had not been moved since the bodies to which they had belonged were laid in the grave. 1 This fashion was apparently abandoned by the Assyrians, for in those reliefs which reproduce the smallest details of dress and ornament with such elaboration, M
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sCSÉT w:**m Fig. 133. — Tablet with impression from a cylinder ; from Layard. we can never find any trace of the seal beside the bracelets. It is probable that it was hung round the neck and put inside the dress, in front, for greater security. It never occurs among the emblematic objects of which the necklace that spreads over the chest outside the robe, is made up. To this day traders in the East keep their seals in a little bag which they carry in an inside pocket. 1 Taylor, Notes on the Ruins of Mugeyer, p. 270 (in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xv.).
