an antique stone with the word abraxas engraved on it. They are of various sizes, and most of them as old as the third century. They are frequent in the cabinets of the curious; and a collection of them, as complete as possible, has been desired by several. There is a fine one in the abbey of St Genevieve, which has occasioned much speculation. Most of them seem to have come from Egypt; whence they are of some use for explaining the antiquities of that country. Sometimes they have no other inscription besides the word; but others have the names of saints, angels, or Jehovah himself annexed; though most usually the name of the Basilidian god. Sometimes there is a representation of Isis sitting on a lobe, or apis, surrounded with stars; sometimes monstrous compositions of animals, obscene images, Phalli and Ithyphallus. The graving is rarely good, but the word on the reverse is sometimes said to be in a more modern taste than the other. The characters are usually Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, or Heterian, and sometimes of a mongrel kind, invented, as it would seem, to render their meaning the more inextricable. It is disputed whether the Veronica of Montreuil, or the granite obelisk mentioned by Gori, be Abraxas.