chapter vi

, verse 2, that they wedded with the “Daughters of Men.” This has been given a poetic form by Thomas Moore in his “Loves of the Angels.” The Book of Job also, in its Prologue in Heaven (i, 6–12), introduces the “Sons of God” among whom appeared Satan, the “Adversary.” Of angel names, as has been noted, there is Biblical warrant only for Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, the last-mentioned, in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit; to these IV Esdras (not a canonical book) adds Jeremiel and Uriel, names not admitted by the Church.

[Illustration:

THE ANGEL RAPHAEL REFUSING THE GIFTS OFFERED BY TOBIT

By Giovanni Biliverti. Pitti Palace, Florence. ]

There has been preserved for us a most interesting calendar for the city of Rome, written by Furius Dionysius Filocalus in 354 A.D., and containing a series of drawings by his hand showing the symbolical figures of the months of the year. Though the original manuscript is lost, several apparently faithful copies exist, one of which is in the Imperial Library in Vienna. Much of this work deals with matters referring to the Roman calendar, but perhaps its most valuable part is a list of the early Christian saints and martyrs. As this is the earliest list of the kind, of even earlier date than the rest of the work, we give it here unabridged, as a most interesting documentary proof of the veneration in which the saints were held in the fourth, or, we should probably say, in the third century.

ITEM DEPOSITIO MARTIRUM[494]

VIII kal. Jan. natus Christum in Betleem Judeæ. mense Januario.

XIII kal. Feb. Fabiani in Callisti et Sebastiani in Catacumbas.

XII kal. Feb. Agnetis in Nomentana. mense Februario.

VIII kal. Martias natale Petri de cathedra. mense Martio. non. Martias. Perpetuæ et Felicitatis, Africæ. mense Maio.

XIIII kal. Jun. Partheni et Caloceri in Callisti, Diocletiano VIIII et Maximiano VIII [304]. mense Junio.

III kal. Jul. Petri in Catacumbas et Pauli Ostense, Tusco et Basso cons. [258]. mense Julio.

VI idus Felicis et Filippi in Priscillæ et in Jordanorum, Martialis Vitalis Alexandri et in Maximi Silani. hunc Silanum martirem Nouati furati sunt. et in Praetextatæ, Januari.

III kal. Aug. Abdos et Semnes in Pontiani, quod est ad ursum piliatum. mense Augusto.

VIII idus Aug. Xysti in Callisti et in Praetextati Agapiti et Felicissimi.

VI idus Aug. Secundi Carpofori Victorini, et Seueriani Albano. et Ostense VII ballisteria Cyriaci Largi Crescentiani Memmiæ Julianetis et Ixmaracdi.

IIII idus Aug. Laurenti in Tiburtina.

idus Aug. Ypoliti in Tiburtina. et Pontiani in Callisti.

XI kal. Septemb. Timotei, Ostense

V kal. Sept. Hermetis in Basillæ Salaria uetere. mense Septembre.

non. Sept. Aconti, in Porto, et Nonni et Herculani et Taurini.

V idus Sept. Gorgoni in Lauicana.

III idus Sept. Proti et Jacinti, in Basillæ.

XVIII kal. Octob. Cypriani, Africæ. Romæ celebratur in Callisti.

X kal. Octob. Basillæ, Salaria uetere, Diocletiano IX et Maximiano VIII consul. (304) mense Octobre.

pri. idus Octob. Callisti in via Aurelia. miliario III. mense Nouembre.

V idus Nou. Clementis Semproniani Claui Nicostrati in comitatum.

III kal. Dec. Saturnini in Trasonis. mense Decembre.

idus Decem. Ariston in pontum.

This list, which begins with the great Christian festival of Christmas, enumerates the days on which Roman martyrs died and were buried. The months are given in their order and below their names appears a very brief record, giving the day and place of burial and the name of each of the martyrs. The first entry, for instance, reads: “January 20, interment of Fabianus in the cemetery of Callistus.” The earliest martyrs mentioned are SS. Perpetua and Felicitas who died in 202 A.D.; thus all definite memory of the many martyrs of the first and second centuries seems to have been lost. Even heretics do not appear to have been excluded, for as it is stated that the Novatians carried away the body of Silanus, it seems more than probable that he himself belonged to this heretical sect. As martyrs, all are regarded as equally entitled to the highest veneration, regardless of what they may have passed through on earth. Other communities than the Roman one possessed similar lists, as is clearly indicated by the words of Cyprian, in his thirty-ninth epistle, where he says: “As you remember, we offered the sacrifice for them, just as we celebrated a commemoration of the sufferings of the martyrs and of their anniversary days.”

To many of the saints curative powers are attributed, and these powers are usually specialized so that each of these saints is invoked for aid against a different disease or defect. With very few exceptions it will be found that some circumstance in the history or legend of the saint is the origin of these beliefs. An exception may perhaps be made in the case of the two saints to whom recourse is most frequent at the present day, namely, St. Anthony of Padua (June 13) and St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary (July 26). Relics of the latter saint, preserved in many parts of Europe and also in America, are regarded as endowed with wonderful therapeutic powers. Recently, in New York City, at the church of St. Jean Baptiste, a relic of St. Anne was shown to many thousands of the faithful, and some wonderful cures are said to have been accomplished by its aid. Sceptics will be inclined to attribute such cures to the influence of suggestion, while Catholics will see in them a proof of the power of the saint’s intercession on behalf of those who repose their trust in her. St. Anthony is usually appealed to for success in difficult enterprises, and more particularly for the discovery of lost articles. Here the belief in the successful intervention of the respective saints is more generalized and appears to have grown up independently of any event chronicled in the legends, but these instances are quite exceptional.

An exceedingly beautiful jewelled medallion said to have been given by Pope Paul V, in 1614, to the Archbishop of Lisbon, Don Miguel de Castro, shows in the centre the figures of the Virgin and Child, surrounded by a setting of old Indian, table-cut diamonds. The archbishop donated this to the Church of St. Antonia da Se, sometimes called the “Royal House of St. Antonio,” for this church was built on the site of the house in which dwelt the parents of St. Anthony, Don Martin de Bulhoes and Dona Teresa de Azavedo, and in which the saint was born on February 6, 1195. At his baptism he was given the name Fernando, but later he changed this to Antonio. The great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 completely wrecked this church, but the high altar wherein the medallion had been placed escaped comparatively unharmed, and the jewel was found by some peasants, who later sold it to the family of Machados e Silvas, in whose private chapel it reposed until within a few years.

The shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré may be seen in the Basilica of Beaupré, about 20 miles distant from Quebec. It stands on the site of a small wooden sanctuary erected about the middle of the seventeenth century by some Breton mariners who, when in imminent danger of shipwreck while navigating the St. Lawrence, made a vow to build a chapel to St. Anne, the dearly-loved patron saint of their native province, at the spot where they should first come to land. St. Anne was regarded in French Canada as the patroness of seafarers and hence a large number of those who frequented her shrine were seafaring people. However, even more were attracted by the report of the marvellous cures of all kinds of diseases which were said to have taken place there. Pilgrimages to this shrine continue to be made at the present time; indeed, the number of those who thus testify to their belief in the power of the saint has increased rapidly during the past thirty years. In 1880 the pilgrims numbered 36,000; in 1900 the record showed 135,000, and in 1910 the number had increased to 188,266, a proof that the devotees are more and more convinced that St. Anne’s relics are the sources of great healing virtue.

All of the numerous relics of St. Anne exhibited in Canada and elsewhere are said to have come originally from the town of Apt in France, where, according to Catholic tradition, her body was found by the Emperor Charlemagne in 792, and it is related that when the reliquary covering the holy body was opened a fragrance as of balsam emanated from the interior. How the body was transferred to Apt from its resting place in Palestine is a mystery not solved even in tradition, although some believe that it was brought thither by St. Auspicius, known as the Apostle of Apt. The Basilica of Beaupré contains five of these precious relics; one of them was brought to Canada from the Cathedral of Carcasonne, in France, about the year 1662, at the instance of Monseigneur de Laval, first bishop of Quebec, and founder of Laval University. This is the first joint of the middle finger of the saint. The devotees at the shrine first saw this precious gift March 12, 1670; it is adorned with two intersecting rows of pearls, forming a cross. Another relic of peculiar importance is that given in 1892 by the late Cardinal Taschereau. This is a bone from St. Anne’s wrist measuring four inches in length. It is enclosed in a reliquary made of massive gold and studded with precious stones, the gifts of those whose prayers to the saint had been answered. In the ornamentation appear eight diamonds, four amethysts, a fire opal, etc. At the bottom of the reliquary there is a gold plate with the inscription: “Ex brachio S. Annae,” and a gold ring set with twenty-eight diamonds. This jealously-guarded treasure is exhibited in the shrine but once a year, from July 26 to August 2, a period comprising St. Anne’s Day and the week following it; at other times the reliquary is kept in the Sacristy, but may be seen on special request.

A remarkable jewel in the treasury of the Basilica is the seal of Santa Anna, elected president of Mexico in 1832. A golden eagle, with eyes formed of two rubies, stands on a rock of lapis lazuli and bears the stamp of the seal; resting on his spread wings is a sphere of lapis lazuli in which the words “Diaz, Mexico,” are inlaid in letters of gold. The seal is engraved with the initials of the president’s name, surrounded by a design embodying the insignia of his office.

At the feast of St. Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia (d. circa 316), which occurs on February 3d in the Roman Church, the wick of a candle is sometimes dipped in a vessel containing consecrated oil, the throats of the faithful being then touched with this wick, to preserve them from diseases of the throat. At other times the ceremony is performed in a different way. The priest holds two candles, adjusted so as to form a cross, above the heads of those who come to seek the saint’s aid, and the following prayer is recited: “Through the intercession of St. Blaise may God free thee from diseases of the throat, and from every other disease. (Per intercessionem S. Blasii liberet te Deus a malo gutteris et a quovis alio malo.)”

It is related that this saint in his travels, once meeting a poor woman whose only child had swallowed a fish-bone, relieved the child of its trouble by offering up a prayer and laying his hand upon its throat. In the prayer he adjures all who may suffer from a like trouble to seek his intercession with God.

St. Apollonia of Alexandria (February 9) is said to cure toothache and all diseases of the teeth, the reason for this being that at her martyrdom all her beautiful teeth were pulled out. In a similar way St. Agatha, of Catania or Palermo, in Sicily, is endowed with the power to cure diseases of the breast, because it is related that before her martyrdom her breasts were cruelly torn and mutilated.

To recite the formula of St. Apollonia was considered by the Spaniards of three centuries ago to be a cure for toothache. This fact is brought out by a passage in Don Quixote, when the knight’s housekeeper is urged to recite it for her master’s benefit when he is ailing. To this request the woman quickly answers: “That might do something if my master’s distemper lay in his teeth, but, alas! it lies in his brain.” This formula was probably used before the age of Cervantes, and has persisted to our own time. It is in verse and has been literally translated into English as follows:[495]

Apollonia was at the gate of Heaven and the Virgin Mary passed that way. “Say, Apollonia, what are you about?” “My Lady, I neither sleep nor watch, I am dying with a pain in my teeth.” “By the star of Venus and the setting sun, by the Most Holy Sacrament, which I bore in my womb, may no pain in your tooth, neither front nor back, afflict you from this time henceforward.”

Of Santa Lucia (December 13), born in Syracuse on the island of Sicily, a strange legend is told. A young man fell passionately in love with her, and wrote to her that her wonderful eyes pursued him even in his dreams. Moved by the Scripture text, “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,” and longing to save the youth from sensual passion, Lucia cut out her beautiful eyes, placed them on a dish, and sent them to her lover with the following message: “Here thou hast what thou so ardently desirest; I beseech thee leave me in peace.” Very naturally, this saint is believed to cure all diseases of the eye.

For protection against highway robbers and thieves, St. Nicholas (December 6), Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, was invoked. Legend relates of this saint that he restored to life three boys who had been murdered at an inn by the wicked innkeeper, a wretch who was in the habit of making away with his guests and then utilizing their bodies to enrich his menu. This tale accounts for the fact that, under the familiar name of Santa Claus, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children.

St. Barbara (December 4), born in Heliopolis, is appealed to for protection against lightning and injury by firearms. For this reason the gun-room on a ship is called in French the _sainte-barbe_. The legend, as usual, gives us the origin of the belief in the saint’s special powers, for her heathen father is said to have been killed by a stroke of lightning, because of his having denounced his daughter, as a Christian, to the Roman authorities, and then executed judgment upon her with his own hands. Of St. Barbara the legend says: “She was a fair fruit from an evil tree.”[496]

Beneath portraits or images of St. Christopher (July 25) there often appears a Latin verse to the effect that whoever gazes on the image will not suffer from faintness or exhaustion on that day. As the saint is said to have been of great size and strength, the worshipper at his shrine was believed to acquire some of his physical power.

[Illustration:

SANTA BARBARA

French school, 1520. Leaf of a triptych in the Museum of Budapest. ]

The cure of diseases of the tongue was the province of St. Catherine of Alexandria (November 25), who was famed for her eloquence as well as for her devotion to the study of the Scriptures.

St. Roch, who was born in Montpelier toward the end of the thirteenth century (d. August 16, 1327), is regarded as the special guardian of those afflicted with plague or pestilence. In his lifetime he went from place to place ministering to those who suffered from the plague until finally he himself succumbed to this malady. So great was the repute of St. Roch’s curative powers that the Venetians are said to have stolen his body from Montpelier, where it was interred, and transported it to Venice, that they might have ever-present help in the numerous pestilences from which this city suffered, because of the constant commercial intercourse with the East.

Another saint who was invoked for help in plague and pestilence was St. Sebastian (January 20), born in Narbonne in Gaul. In this case the story of the saint’s martyrdom gave rise to the belief in his curative powers, for the legend tells us that he was transfixed with arrows, and these missiles were regarded as symbols of the plague. We have an illustration of this old belief in the first book of Homer’s Iliad, where the pestilence that visited the army of the Greeks is represented as due to the shafts sped from Apollo’s silver bow.

Although no curative powers are attributed to them, no one of English speech should forget SS. Crispin and Crispian, on whose day the battle of Agincourt was fought, in 1415. The old feud between France and England has been long forgotten, the rivalry between these nations has given place to a close friendship, and there is no trace of animosity in the glow that warms an Englishman’s heart when he reads the ringing words put by Shakespeare into the mouth of Henry V:

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered.

It is related by Metaphrastus that when St. George was condemned to death by burning, his executioners (fearing that the flames of the pyre might be extinguished because of his virtue) covered his body with a garment of amiantos (asbestos); for it was believed that when this material began to burn the flame could not be extinguished. But all precautions were vain, for as soon as the saint was placed in the flames the fire went out, contrary to the laws of nature, and not a hair of his head was injured. This tale illustrates a curious but not unnatural misunderstanding of the name asbestos, which really signifies inextinguishable, but was intended to mean that the substance would not burn, and hence that no flame could be extinguished in it.[497]

In an unpublished manuscript written by Aubrey are quoted the following curious lines on the legend of St. George and the Dragon:[498]

To save a mayd, St. George the Dragon slew, A pretty tale if all is told be true; Most say there are no Dragons, and ’tis sayd, There was no George; pray God there was a mayd.

The St. George thalers, coined by the counts of Mansfeld (Thüringen), enjoyed in bygone times a reputation as amulets for soldiers. This belief is said to have originated from the actual preservation of a soldier’s life by one of these coins, which he had sewed up in the lining of his coat just over his heart for safe-keeping. A bullet which struck him here and would otherwise have killed him, was diverted by coming in contact with the thaler. Hungarian St. George thalers were regarded as amulets for sailors as well as soldiers. These coins derived their name from bearing the design of St. George and the Dragon.

Among the wonder-working saints none enjoyed greater repute in medieval times than Sainte Foy, the virgin martyr whose remains were taken from Agen to the abbey-church at Conques, a village on the hills of Aveyron. Pilgrims came from far and near to the shrine of Sainte Foy, for she worked marvellous cures upon those who appealed to her for help, even giving sight to the blind. Her grace appears to have been bestowed upon animals as well as upon human beings, a fantastic legend relating that she had raised donkeys from the grave! Naturally the pilgrims must bring rich gifts, as otherwise the saint might turn a deaf ear to their prayers.

Many of these treasures may still be seen in this out-of-the-way church, wherein no one would suspect the existence of the rich specimens of early goldsmiths’ work that are carefully preserved in the treasury. The most interesting of these treasures is a statuette supposed to represent the saint. This is a seated figure, about 33 inches high and encrusted with an immense number of precious stones, uncut emeralds, sapphires and amethysts, as well as with many cameos and pearls; all these having been offered at various times to the saint.

The figure—probably the representation of some ecclesiastic—is seated on an elaborate chair, originally surmounted by two golden doves. The saint is said to have appeared in a vision to the Bishop of Beaulieu and expressly directed this adornment; these doves have disappeared and have been replaced by crystal balls. The execution of the statuette—constructed of wood covered with gold plates—is stiff and conventional, but it is not unimpressive and gives evidence of considerable skill on the part of the artist. Nevertheless, it certainly has nothing of the youthful grace we would associate with a virgin martyr.[499]

The offering of precious stones to attract the favor of gods or saints is really a talismanic use of such gems and is intimately connected with the wearing of gems for their talismanic or therapeutic effect. The gift established a sort of relation between the being whose help was desired and the petitioner, and the gem was the medium through which the favor was bestowed.

The legend of the royal princess who was canonized by the Church as St. Enimie (d. 628 or 630 A.D.) contains an account of a miraculous spring and also enshrines the popular view of the cause of the strange outlines of an extensive mass of heaped-up boulders. This saint was a daughter of the French king Clotaire II (d. 628). Her most ardent wish was to devote herself exclusively to the service of Christ, but her royal parent insisted upon a marriage with one of the great nobles. The princess, who was the fairest of the fair, put up an earnest prayer that the Lord would destroy her beauty, even at the expense of some dreadful malady, so that she might cease to be an object of desire for men. Her prayer was heard and she was stricken with leprosy which entirely blotted out her charms. Not long after this an angel appeared to her in a dream and directed her to bathe in the Fountain of Boule, in the region of Gévaudan. On doing so she was immediately cured of her leprosy, but as soon as she went away from the spring to return to the royal residence, the malady returned. A second attempt had the same favorable and unfavorable results, and she now recognized that she must remain near the spring. So after bathing there a third time and being again completely cured, she erected a monastery on the spot and became the prioress. The institution flourished, but a few years later the saintly prioress was horrified to see that the Devil was busy with her nuns. Once more she sought for divine aid, and she was given authority to imprison the Evil One should she catch him in the monastery. This she did, but the Devil was crafty enough to make his escape. Near the spot where the monastery stood was a mass of heaped-up boulders, through which led a way called the Chasm Road which led to a rocky aperture of unknown depth. This was fabled to afford egress and ingress to the Devil in his passage out of and back to the infernal regions. Along this road he fled when he escaped from the monastery; St. Enimie fearlessly pursued, but the agile demon was on the point of slipping back again into his own realm, when the saint made a supreme appeal and called upon the rocks to help her. As she raised her arms in supplication, one of the largest boulders, called “La Sourde,” moved of its own accord and fell upon the Devil, pinning him fast to the ground beneath its ponderous weight. In his rage and despair he made frantic efforts to free himself and his bloody claws left an imprint on the rock. This mark, still observable a half-century ago, though it has now disappeared, was prosaically explained by scientists as a stain of iron-oxide. The other boulders were in motion to assist in the good work, but when the Devil had been caught they stopped short in their downward course, and this is supposed to account for the strange angles at which they stand.[500] It would be pleasant to fancy that His Satanic Majesty eventually failed to make his escape, but unfortunately the ever-recurring instances of his activity from the age of St. Enimie down to our own time preclude this belief.

An heirloom in the family of Dom Pedro of Brazil is said to have been loaned to one of the pioneer aviators, Santos-Dumont, by Dom Pedro’s daughter, the Comtesse d’Eu. This was a medal of St. Benedict and had been long regarded as a powerful talisman in the Braganza family. One of its princely members had a striking proof of this virtue in 1705, when, after having worn the medal but two weeks, he was saved from deadly peril by the timely discovery and consequent defeat of a plot. Santos-Dumont had just experienced a terrible fall while experimenting with his new airship in the Rothschild park near Paris, and this it was that induced the Comtesse d’Eu to loan him the talismanic medal, with the injunction that he should always wear it on his person, and the assurance that if he did so no further harm could befall him. The talisman seemed to do its work well, for although the aviator had many narrow escapes, he was always saved from serious injury. Unfortunately, however, a thief picked it from the pocket of his coat while he was busily engaged in work on an airship in a Paris machine-shop.[501]

While it was customary to close the shops of the goldsmiths on Sundays and feast-days, a special exception permitted the “Confrérie de St. Eloi,” the goldsmiths’ guild, to open a single shop (not always the same one) on each Sunday and feast-day, the profits of the sales being devoted to providing a dinner on Easter Day for the poor of the Hôtel Dieu.[502] This combination of commercialism and philanthropy has illustrations in our own day, and, whatever may be the ulterior motives, some good results are certainly attained.

The Well of St. Cuthbert, near Cranstock, Newquay, England, long enjoyed the repute of miraculously curing the ailments of infants. Not only were curative powers attributed to the waters of the well, but also to a perforated stone alongside of it. As recently as 1868 a puny infant is said to have been passed through the orifice of this stone with the firm expectation that this act would strengthen the infant and bring good luck to it.[503]

In the region of the Abruzzi, in Italy, more especially in the province of Teramo, wonderful virtues are attributed to the intercession of St. Donato. So great is thought to be his power to cure those afflicted with epilepsy that in this region the disease is called the malady of St. Donato. This saint, however, is credited with much more extensive powers, for he is believed to cure hydrophobia, to prevent the ill effects of the Evil Eye, and in general to bring to naught the enchantments of witches. Such being his powers, it is not surprising that his image was added to many amulets, those figuring the lunar crescent being frequently surmounted with the bust of the saint. This type of amulet owes its supposed efficacy to the horn-like shape of the crescent, horns or substances having a likeness to a horn, like certain branches of coral, being regarded as a sure protection against the Evil Eye. A curious amulet bears the bust of St. Donato surmounting a crescent moon within which is the dreaded number thirteen. This fateful number is considered to be a source of misfortune for those who do not wear it inscribed on an amulet; but it becomes a source of good fortune and a happy life for those who possess such an amulet.[504]

A notable instance of the use of a saint’s name to facilitate the perpetration of a crime is afforded in the case of the poison known as Aqua Tofana. This appears to have been a preparation of arsenic and was concocted by a woman named Tofana, a native of Palermo, in Sicily, who eventually took up her abode in Naples and devoted herself to the preparation and sale of her poison in Naples, Rome and elsewhere. To divert suspicion she used vials marked “Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari,” and bearing the image of this saint. Most of her clients are said to have been women who were anxious to rid themselves of their husbands, and she must have had a large practice in this specialty, for so many husbands died in Rome in a mysterious manner that in 1659 the authorities finally took cognizance of the matter and instituted a searching investigation. This revealed the fact that there existed in Rome a secret society entirely composed of women who wished to “remove” their husbands by poison. The leader of this society and many of the members were duly executed, but Tofana does not seem to have been molested.

Many strange superstitions as to the saints prevail among the Spanish-speaking inhabitants of New Mexico. If a saint whose aid has been invoked fails to respond to the appeal, his image is shut up in some receptacle until he vouchsafes to render the service desired. On the other hand, if the image of a saint falls to the ground, this is interpreted as a sign that the saint has performed a miracle. One means of forcing a saint to perform a miracle was to hang the image head downward; this was especially recommended in the case of St. Anthony. All strangers who presented themselves on St. Anthony’s day or St. Joseph’s day were to be hospitably received and entertained, for one of them might be the saint himself. Those who wished to read the future were instructed to put the white of an egg in a glass of water on the eve of St. John’s day; on examining the contents of the glass the next morning they would see written in black characters on the white background a prophecy of what was to happen. On this saint’s day women were assured that if they cut the tip of their hair with an axe, or merely washed it, they would be blessed with an abundant growth of hair.

[Illustration:

BLOODSTONE MEDALLION, SHOWING THE SANTA CASA OF LORETO CARRIED BY ANGELS TO DALMATIA FROM GALILEE ]

A strange legend of angelic activity is that touching the miraculous transportation through the air (from Galilee to Dalmatia) of the “Santa Casa,” the house wherein the Virgin Mary dwelt. This event is placed in 1295, and the reverse of an Italian medallion engraved in 1508, during the pontificate of Julius II, gives a representation of the journey to Dalmatia, two angels sufficing to bear the little edifice. The sea, over which the house is being borne, is conventionally indicated by waves, but the fact that the medallist has seen fit to show a relatively large figure of the Virgin seated on the roof of the little structure and holding the Infant Jesus in her arms, scarcely adds to the realism of the effect.

Quite naturally Catholicism could not be satisfied with the pagan idea that the constellations held sway over the different parts of the human body, and the saints were substituted for the stars.

The saints of the Romanists have usurped the place of the zodiacal constellations in their government of the parts of man’s body, and so for every limbe they have a saint. Thus, St. Otilia keepes the head instead of Aries; St. Blasius is appointed to govern the necke instead of Taurus; St. Lawrence keepes the backe and shoulders instead of Gemini, Cancer and Leo; St. Erasmus rules the belly with the entrayls, in the place of Libra and Scorpius; in the stead of Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces, the holy church of Rome hath elected St. Burgarde, St. Rochus, St. Quirinius, St. John, and many others, which govern the thighes, feet, shinnes and knees.[505]

When we consider how many beautiful and symbolic rites and observances have marked the celebration of saint’s days and holidays in the Old World, and how few of these have been preserved by the inhabitants of our own country, we must find this most regrettable. Of late years there has been a marked tendency to increase the number of holidays, and in a few cases to revive the celebration of old holidays, but the popular idea of the best way to celebrate these occasions seems to be confined to making them carnivals of noise and disorder. This is largely owing to a lack of intelligent guidance, for it is too much to expect that any people, above all those so practical as our American people, can spontaneously evolve, at short notice, an emblematic expression of the idea underlying the festival. If, however, a beautiful and adequate symbolism were presented in a concrete form, the masses of the people would grasp its significance quickly enough, and would thus gain a higher and better conception of the historic anniversary or the time-honored festival they were called upon to celebrate.

The saint’s days on which the summer and winter solstices fell were memorized by distichs. For instance:

St. Barnaby bright! St. Barnaby bright! The longest day and the shortest night.

St. Thomas gray! St. Thomas gray! The longest night and the shortest day.

The former of the verses is probably the earlier, as St. Barnabas’ Day is June 11, the day on which the summer solstice fell in England for some time before the reform of the “Old Style” calendar, in 1752, replaced this date; while St. Thomas’ Day is December 21, the date of the winter solstice in our modern calendar.[506]

Writing of the origin of the rural superstitions in regard to the weather on certain saint’s days, Wehrenfels quotes the distich:

If Paul’s Day be fair and clear It foreshows an happy Year.

and continues:

The contrary has happened a thousand Times, but however this cannot destroy the Rule. It once happened; certainly, say they, these Rules of the Husbandmen are not to be despised; see how exactly they are made good by Experience. Thus a great Part of Mankind reasons; which if one consider, he will neither depend much upon the Content of the common People in these Things, nor wonder at so great a Number of most silly Opinions.[507]

VERSES ON SAINTS’ DAYS AT VARIOUS SEASONS OF THE YEAR.[508]

January 25. Saint Paul’s Day:

If the clouds make dark the sky, Great store of people then will die; If there be either snow or rain, Then will be dear all kinds of grain. (Robin Forby, “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” London, 1830.)

Somewhat different in a Latin form:

Clara dies Pauli multas segetes nitant amni, Si fuerint nebulæ, aut venti, erunt proelia genti.

February 2. Candlemas Day:

If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight; If on Candlemas day it be shower and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again. (John Ray, “A Collection of English Proverbs,” 2d ed., Cambridge, 1678.)

February 12. St. Eulalia’s Day:

If the sun shines on St. Eulalie’s day, It is good for apples and cider they say.

February 14. St. Valentine’s Day:

On St. Valentine’s day Cast beans in clay But on St. Chad Sow good or bad. (Seed time of this Lenten crop limited between February 14 and March 2.)

February 24. St. Matthias’ Day:

Saint Matthew (Sept. 21) Get candlesticks new; St. Mattheg Lay candlesticks by.

March 1. St. David’s Day:

Quoth Saint David, “I’ll have a flood.” Saith our Lady [Mch. 25] “I’ll have as good.” (Referring to spring tides in Wales, from Poor Robin’s Almanack, 1684.)

June 15. St. Vitus’ Day:

If Saint Vitus’ day be rainy weather, It will rain for thirty days together. (M. A. Denham, “Proverbs and Popular Sayings Relating to the Seasons,” Percy Soc., 1846.)

July 15. St. Swithin’s Day:

St. Swithin’s day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain; St. Swithin’s day, if thou be fair, For forty days t’will rain nae mair. (M. A. Denham, “Proverbs and Popular Sayings Relating to the Seasons,” Percy Soc., 1846.)

July 15: All the tears that St. Swithin can cry Aug. 24: Saint Bartholomew’s dusty mantle wipes dry. (R. Inwards, “Weather Lore,” London, 1893.)

July 20. St. Margaret’s Day:

“Margaret’s floods” (heavy rains).

July 25. St. James’ Day:

“Whoever eats oysters on St. James’ day will never want money.” (M. A. Denham, “Proverbs and Popular Sayings Relating to the Seasons,” Percy Soc., 1846.)

August 24. St. Bartholomew’s Day:

St. Bartholomew Brings cold dew. (John Ray, “A Collection of English Proverbs,” 2d ed., Cambridge, 1678.)

October 28. St. Simon and St. Jude:

Simon and Jude All the ships on the sea home they do crowd.

Dost thou know her then? Trap. As well as I know ’twill rain upon Simon and Jude’s day next. (Middleton, “The Roaring Girl,” Act 5, Sc. 1.)

Now a continual Simon and Jude’s rain beat all your feathers as flat down as pancakes! (Idem, Act II, Sc. 1.)

November 11. St. Martin’s Day:

Expect St. Martin’s summer, halcyon days. (Shakespeare, “I Henry VI,” Act 1, Sc. 2.)

December 13. St. Lucy’s Day:

Lucy [bright] light The shortest day and the longest night (For a long time, before the change of the calendar, St. Lucy’s Day corresponded to our 21st of December.)

December 21. St. Thomas’ Day:

St. Thomas gray, St. Thomas gray The longest night and the shortest day.

December 27. St. John the Evangelist’s Day:

Never rued the man That lead in his fuel before St. John. (Robin Forby, “Vocabulary of East Anglia,” London, 1830.)

Additional verses on Candlemas Day (Purification of the Blessed Virgin):

If the sun shines bright on Candlemas Day, The half of the winter’s not yet away.

In Latin:

Si sol splendescat Maria purificante, Major erit glacies post festum quam ante.

SAINTS’ DAYS

ADRIAN. September 8. As also of his wife, Natalia. Anniversary of translation of his relics to Rome; anciently his festival on day of his martyrdom, March 4, 306. Patron of soldiers in Flanders, Germany, and northern France; also against the plague. Relics in Abbey of St. Adrian, Gearsburg, Belgium; and elsewhere.

AFRA. August 5. Especially celebrated in Augsburg, of which city (her native one) she is patroness. Martyred Aug. 7, 304.

AGATHA. February 5. Patroness of Malta, and Catania, Sicily. Died February 5, 251.

AGNES. January 21. Supposed anniversary of martyrdom in 304.

ALBAN. June 22. First English saint and martyr, died June 22, 303. Present town of St. Albans upon site of martyrdom.

AMABLE. June 11. Patron of Riom, France. Died 475.

AMBROSE. December 7. Patron of Milan. Died April 4, 397. Founder of church, now Sant’ Ambrogio basilica Maggiore, Milan, in 387. One of four Latin Fathers.

ANDREW. November 30. Apostle, patron of Scotland and Russia.

ANNE. July 26. Supposed anniversary of her death. Mother of the Virgin Mary. Patroness of Canada.

ANSELM. April 21. Archbishop of Canterbury (1033–1109).

ANTHONY. January 17. Hermit (251–356).

ANTHONY OF PADUA. June 13. Died June 13, 1231.

APOLLONIA. February 9. Martyred February 9, 250. Patroness of those suffering from toothache.

ATHANASIUS. May 2. One of four Greek Fathers. Died May 2, 373.

AUGUSTINE. August 28. Died 430. Patron of theologians and learning. Bishop of Hippo in Africa. One of four Latin Fathers.

AUGUSTINE. May 26. Apostle to England in 596. Died May 26, 604.

BABYLAS. September 1 (14) in Eastern Church; January 24 in Western Church (237–250). Bishop of Antioch. Relics said to have silenced the revived oracle of Apollo at Delphi, during reign of Julian the Apostate.

BARBARA. December 4. Patroness of Ferrara, Mantua and Guastalla, Italy, and of armourers and gunsmiths. Died December 4, 235 (?).

BARNABAS. June 11. His birthday. One of the patrons of Milan. Apostle.

BARTHOLOMEW. August 24. Apostle.

BASIL THE GREAT. January 1, Eastern Church; June 14, Western Church (328–380).

BATHILDA. January 30 in France; January 26 in Roman Martyrology (died ca. 680).

BAYO OR BAVON. October 1. Patron of Ghent (589–653).

BENEDICT. March 21. Founder of Benedictine Order (480–543).

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX. August 20. Founder of Abbey of Clairvaux, one of the Fathers of the Church (1091–1153).

BERNARD OF MENTHON. June 15. Founder of hospices in the Alps, “Great St. Bernard” and “Little St. Bernard” (923–1008?).

BLAISE. February 3. Patron of Ragusa, and of those afflicted with throat diseases. Bishop of Sebaste, Cappadocia (died 316).

BONIFACE. June 5. Apostle of Germany (680–755).

BRIDGET OR BRIDE. February 1. Patroness of Ireland (450–521).

BRUNO. October 6. Founder of Carthusian Order (1035–1101).

CATHERINE. November 25. Patroness of Venice and appealed to against diseases of the tongue.

CATHERINE OF SIENA. Patroness of Siena; lived in fourteenth century.

CECILIA. November 22. Patroness of sacred music (died 100).

CLEMENT. November 23. Patron of farriers and blacksmiths (died 100).

COLUMBAN. November 21. Irish saint (543–615).

CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN. October 25. Patrons of shoemakers (died 284).

CUTHBERT. March 20. Patron saint of Durham, England (died 687).

DAVID. March 1. Patron saint of Wales (446–549).

DECLAN. July 24. First bishop of Ardmore, Ireland.

DENIS. October 9. Patron of France. Living in 250.

DOMENIC. August 4. Founder of Dominican Order (1170–1221).

EDMUND. November 20. King of East Anglia and martyr (died 870).

EDWARD. March 18. King of England and martyr (962–978).

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. October 13. King of England (1004–1066).

ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. November 19. Daughter of Alexander II, King of Hungary (1207–1231).

ELMO (ERASMUS). June 2 (died 304).

ELOY (ELIGIUS). December 1. Patron of goldsmiths (588–659).

EMERIC. November 4. Eldest son of St. Stephen of Hungary.

ENGRACIA.

ERIC (OR HENRY). May 18. Patron of Sweden (died 1151).

ETHELREDA (AUDREY). October 17. Princess of East Anglia (died 679).

EUPHEMIA. September 16. Patroness of Chalcedon (died ca. 307).

FELICITAS. November 23. Patroness of male heirs (died 173).

FILLAN. January 9. Scotch saint (died ca. 649).

FILOMENA (FILUMINA, PHILOMENA). August 10. Supposititious saint.

FRANCIS OF ASSISI. October 4. Founder of Franciscan Order (1182–1226).

FRANCIS XAVIER. December 3. Patron and Apostle of India (1506–1552).

FRIDESWIDE. October 19. Patroness of city and university of Oxford, daughter of Sidan, Prince of Oxford (died ca. 740).

GENEVIEVE. January 3. Patroness of Paris.

GEORGE. April 23. Patron of England, of Germany and Venice, of soldiers and armourers (born third century).

GILES. September 1. Patron of Edinburgh (ca. 640–).

GREGORY THE GREAT. March 12 (born 540).

GUDULA. January 8. Patron of Brussels (born middle of seventh century).

HELENA. August 18. Wife of Constantius, mother of Constantine the Great (died 328).

HENRY OF BAVARIA. July 15. Patron of Bavaria. Emperor (Henry II) of Germany (972–1024).

HILARY. January 14 (died 368).

HONORATUS. Bishop of Arles. Died January 6, 429.

HONORATUS (HONORÉ). May 16. Patron of bakers. Bishop of Amiens. (Died 690.)

HUBERT OF LIEGE. November 3. Patron of the chase and of dogs (died 727).

IGNATIUS LOYOLA. July 3. Founder of Jesuit Order (1491–1556).

ISIDORE THE PLOUGHMAN (Isidro el Labrador). May 15. Patron of Madrid and of farmers (born ca. 1110–1170).

JAMES THE GREAT. July 25. Apostle; patron of Spain and of pilgrims to Jerusalem (died 42).

JANUARIUS. September 19. Patron of Naples (died 305).

JEROME. September 30. Patron of scholars. One of the four Latin Fathers (342–420).

JOHN THE BAPTIST. June 24, or Midsummer Day.

JOHN THE EVANGELIST. December 27 (died 101).

JOSEPH. March 19.

JULIAN HOSPITATOR. January 9. Patron of hospitals (died 313).

JUSTINA OF PADUA. October 7. One of the patrons of Padua and Venice (died 303).

KENELM. December 13 and July 17. Son of Kenulph, King of Murcia (812–820).

KEYNE (KEYNA). Cornish saint (died 689).

KILIAN. July 8. Irish saint (died 689).

LAWRENCE. August 10. Patron of Nuremberg, Genoa, and of the Escorial.

LEONHARDT. November 6. Patron of prisoners and slaves; in Bavaria, of cattle (died ca. 560).

LUCY (LUCIA). December 13. Patron of Syracuse, and against eye-diseases.

LUDMILLA. September 16. Patron of Bohemia. Queen of that country (died ca. 920).

LUKE. October 18. Patron of painters.

MACAIRE THE ELDER. January 15. (Fourth century.)

MACAIRE THE YOUNGER. January 2. (Fourth century.)

MALO (MACLOU). November 15. Patron of St. Malo, France (died 627).

MARGARET. July 20. One of the patrons of Cremona and of women in childbirth (died fourth century).

MARK. April 25. Evangelist (died 68).

MARTHA OF BETHANY. July 29. Patroness of cooks and housewives (died 84).

MARTIN OF TOURS. November 11, Martinmas. Patron of Tours and of beggars, tavern-keepers and wine-growers (316–397).

MARY MAGDALENE. July 22. Patroness of Provence and of Marseilles as well as of penitent fallen women.

MATTHIAS. February 24.

MAURICE. September 22. Patron of Austria, Savoy, Mantua, and of foot-soldiers (fourth century).

MICHAEL. September 29. Archangel.

NICHOLAS. December 6. Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, patron of Russia, and especially of serfs and serfdom (died 342).

OLAF. July 29. Patron of Norway. Not canonized but informally accepted.

OUEN (OUINE). August 24. Patron of Rouen (595–683).

PANTALEONE. June 27. Patron of physicians (fourth century).

PATRICK. March 17. Patron of Ireland (born ca. 386).

PAUL. June 29 (with St. Peter), and January 25.

PETER. June 29; also August 1, St. Peter’s Chains, and January 18, Chair of St. Peter.

PHILIP. May 1. Patron of Brabant and Luxemburg.

PHILIP NERI. May 26. Founder of Oratorian Order (1515–1595).

POLYCARP. January 26. Bishop of Smyrna (died 167).

QUIETUS. (No day.) Bones in church of Our Lady of Grau, Hoboken, enshrined June 1, 1856, Archbishop Bailey officiating.

ROCHE (ROCH, ROQUE). August 16. Patron of prisoners and the sick, especially the plague-stricken (born ca. 1280–1327).

ROMAIN. October 23. Patron of Rouen (died 639).

ROMUALD. February 7 (956–1027).

ROSALIA. September 4. Patroness of Palermo (died 1160).

RUMALD (RUMBALD). November 3. Patron of Brackley and Buckingham, England. Son of King of Northumbria.

SCHOLASTICA. February 10. Sister of St. Benedict (died ca. 543).

SEBALD. Son of a Danish king (eighth century).

SEBASTIAN. January 20. Patron of Chiemsee, Mannheim, Oetting, Palma, Rome, Soissons, and of archers (fourth century).

SECUNDUS. March 30. Patron of Asti (died 119).

STEPHEN. December 26. Patron of horses.

SWITHIN (SWITHUN). July 15. Patron of Winchester (died 862).

SYMPHOROSA. July 18. Only in Greek Church. A Jewish martyr, the mother of the Maccabees (second century B.C.).

THERESA. October 15. Patron of Spain (1515–1582).

THOMAS À BECKET. July 7 (1117–1170).

THOMAS DIDYMUS. December 21. Apostle, patron of Portugal and Palma.

URBAN. May 25. Pope and martyr (died 236).

URSULA. October 21. Patroness of young girls, and of educational institutions (died 383).

VALENTINE. February 14 (first century).

VERONICA. Shrove Tuesday (first century).

VICTOR. Patron of Marseilles (fourth century).

VINCENT. January 22. Patron of Lisbon, Valencia, Saragossa, Milan, and Châlons.

VINCENT DE PAUL. July 19. Founder of Order of the Sisters of Charity.

VITUS. June 15. Patron of Bohemia, Saxony, Sicily, and of dancers and actors (third century).

WALBURGA. February 25 (died ca. 778).

WILLIAM. January 10. Patron of Bruges (died 1209).

WINIFRED. November 3. British maiden of seventh century.

VII On the Religious Use of Various Stones

The precious stone mentioned in the earliest biblical reference, Gen. ii, 12, and there translated onyx, is rendered chrysoprase in the Septuagint version, and is by others referred to the emerald on the ground that the land of Havilah, where it is there said to occur, is thought to have been a part of what was later called Scythia, and as such would include the emerald region of the Urals. But the ancient emeralds are now known to have come largely from Upper Egypt, and such vague conjectures are of little use in determining what stone was really meant in this most ancient allusion. Professor Haupt has even suggested that we might translate the Hebrew word _shoham_ used in this passage by “pearl,” since he conjectures that one of the four “rivers” surrounding the land of Havilah was the Persian Gulf.

For all attempted identifications of the stones mentioned in the Old Testament, we are principally dependent upon the Greek version of the Seventy. As this was made in the Alexandrian period, not far from the time of Theophrastus, whose work on gems we shall presently mention, the names at that time adopted by the Greek translators may be regarded as fairly correct equivalents of the Hebrew. The difficulty lies more in the translation of the classical names into the English, and arises largely from the unscientific nomenclature of the ancients; the same name being employed for stones that resemble each other to the eye, but which are now well distinguished by chemical and physical differences formerly unknown.

There are some traces in the Bible of the use of precious stones as amulets. In Proverbs xvii, 8, we read that “a gift is like a precious stone in the eyes of the owner; whithersoever he turneth he prospereth.” This passage is rendered somewhat differently in the Authorized Version, but the above translation is evidently more correct. The stones of the breastplate were of course amulets in a certain sense, and possibly oracles also, and it is therefore quite probable that the Hebrews shared in the belief common to all the peoples around them, although opposition of the orthodox to all magical practices prevented them from going into

## particulars in regard to such superstitious fancies.

In support of his theory that the Urim and Thummim of the Hebrew high-priest signified the stones of the breastplate worn on the sacred ephod, and should be rendered “perfectly brilliant,” Bellermann cites the passage in Ezekiel (chap, xxviii, verse 14), where he writes of “fiery stones” in treating of the royal splendors of the ruler of the great commercial city of Tyre. As to the oracular utterances of the high-priest when, clad in the ephod and wearing the glittering breastplate, he sought for the counsel of the Almighty, this author rejects the idea that the divine will was revealed by changes in the brilliancy of the stones, by casting of lots, or by a mysterious use of the ineffable name, the Tetragrammaton, J h w h (Jahweh), but believes that the answer to the questions was communicated to the high-priest by an inner voice, an inspiration similar to that vouchsafed to the great prophets of Israel.[509]

A curious analogy to the use by Christians of fragments supposed to have come from the True Cross as amulets, was the employment by the Talmudic Jews of chips from an idol or from something that had been offered to an idol, for the same purpose. It is needless to say that this was severely condemned by the Rabbis.

It is interesting to note the statements of Arab historians that the mummy of Cheops, the Pharaoh of the Great Pyramid, was decorated with a pectoral of precious stones. As the regal and priestly functions were united in the monarch, we may have here the first form of the high-priest’s breastplate.

The Arab historian Abd er-Rahmân, writing in 829 A.D., states that Al Mamoun(813–833), son of Haroun-al-Raschid, entered the great pyramid and found the body of Cheops:

In a stone sarcophagus was a green stone statue of a man, like an emerald, containing a human body, covered with a sheet of fine gold ornamented with a great quantity of precious stones; on the breast was a priceless sword, on the head a ruby as large as a hen’s egg, brilliant as a flame. I have seen the statue which contained the body; it was near the palace of Fôstat.

Essentially the same account is given by Ebub Abd el-Holem, another Arab, who says:

One saw beneath the summit of the pyramid a chamber with a hollow prison, in which was a statue of stone enclosing the body of a man, who had on the breast a pectoral of gold enriched by fine stones, and a sword of inestimable price, on the head a carbuncle the size of an egg, brilliant as the sun, on which were characters no man could read.

In the opinion of Mariette Bey these details are so circumstantial as to leave little doubt that the mummy of Cheops was found by Mamoun, but he believes that the body was covered with a gilt wrapper and that the stones were paste imitations. The ruby was probably the “uræus,” the sacred asp, emblem of royalty, and the wonderful sword may have been a sceptre or a poniard similar to those found in tombs of the eleventh dynasty and in that of Queen Aah-Hotep; the statue of green serpentine often occurs in later tombs. Should this view be correct, precious stones were imitated in glass at a very remote period.[510]

An exceedingly fine specimen of ancient Egyptian goldsmith’s work, now in the Louvre Museum, Paris, is a pendant terminating in a bull’s head, each of the horns being tipped with a little ball. Above the double reins are four rondelles, one of gold, two of a material still undetermined, and one of lapis lazuli; the different parts of the pendant are connected by gold wire. Its most interesting and attractive feature, however, is a polished hexagonal amethyst, engraved on both faces. In each case the form of a priest is figured; in one he appears with his official staff or wand, and in the other he is represented as bearing an incense-burner and offering the mineral and vegetable sacrifices; an Oriental pearl is set above the engraved amethyst. The religious and sacrificial significance of this ornament, coupled with the costliness of the materials and the superior excellence of the workmanship, make it likely that we have here an amulet or talisman made for some Egyptian of very high rank.[511]

St. Jerome (346?–420 A.D.), in his commentary on Isaiah (liv, 11, 12), alludes to the verses of Ezekiel describing the glories of the King of Tyre and the precious stones with which he was adorned. Evidently Jerome believed that this passage was to be taken symbolically, for he asks:

Who could have so little judgment and intelligence as to think that any Prince of Tyre whatever should be set in the Paradise of God, and have his place among the Cherubim, or could fancy that he dwelt with the glowing stones, which we should without doubt understand as the angels and the celestial virtues.[512]

It would be both curious and interesting if we could trace a connection between the significance of the names of the Hebrew tribes and those of the breastplate gems assigned to the tribes. In ancient times names were much more significant than they are to-day, and the tribal names in

## particular possessed for the Hebrews a symbolic meaning, but this does

not appear to have induced any marked tendency to connect the colors or the symbolic meanings of the different stones with the fame, or with the characteristics or fortunes of the several tribes. On the other hand, the foundation stones, as symbols of the Apostles, became a favorite theme with the early Christian writers. Possibly the neglect of ancient Hebrew writers to perform a similar task in connection with the breastplate stones might still be made good, even at this late date, and an effort in this direction might result in giving a wider range to the symbolic value of certain well-known gems.

The name Reuben signifies “Behold a Son,” and this has been given a Messianic meaning by some commentators. In Jacob’s enigmatic blessing, “excellency of dignity” and “excellency of power” are attributed to Reuben, but this birthright is taken from him because of a heinous sin he has committed. Still we might see in the carnelian, the gem of Reuben, a symbol of “dignity” and “power.”

Simeon has been variously rendered “Hearing” or “Hearkener.” The blessing accuses him of an act of cruelty in which he was aided by his brother Levi. To the peridot, or chrysolite, dedicated to Simeon, could be appropriately assigned the meaning “good tidings.”

The priestly functions of the tribe of Levi are expressed by the name itself which means “attached” or “joined,” that is, to the altar. Hence in the emerald we should see the symbol of “dedication” or “ministration,” in addition to its other and better known meanings, such as “hope,” “faith,” and “resurrection.”

For the tribe of Judah we have the ruby, and here the meaning of the name, “praised,” fits in well with the dignity of the rare and glowing ruby. This noble gem has always been a favorite adornment for royal crowns and from Judah sprang the royalty of Israel. The blessing given to this tribe declares that “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” This is often taken to signify the consummation of the Kingdom of Israel in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Issachar, signifying “reward,” or “the rewarded,” suggests as symbolic meanings of the tribal stone lapis lazuli, “success” and “fruition.” This stone, the sapphire of the ancients, was typical of heaven, probably owing to the appearance of the specimens most highly valued in olden times, those in which a number of golden spots are scattered over the blue surface of the stone, which thus figure both the blue of heaven and the hosts of the stars.

The tribal name Zebulon signifies “exaltation,” and to this tribe is assigned a dwelling-place by the sea bordering on the domains of the rich Phenician seaport, Sidon. We could thus see in the gem of Zebulon, the onyx, a symbol of dominion and authority. This could serve to offset some of the old superstitions regarding the onyx, which was sometimes charged with bringing discord and dissension.

Of the tribe Joseph, we are told that it was to be increased, and this meaning is contained in the name itself, which is rendered: “May God add.” To Joseph were promised “blessings of heaven above,” and “blessings of the deep that lieth under.” The sapphire, probably the tribal stone of Joseph, was known in ancient times by the name hyacinth and was a stone of good omen, bringing increase of health and wealth; therefore its significance as a tribal gem does not differ essentially from the traditional one.

[Illustration:

CHINESE JADE AMULETS FOR THE DEAD

Figs. 1_a_ and _b_, pair of eye-protecting amulets; Fig. 2, presumably eye-amulets; Fig. 3, eye-amulet with design of fish; Figs 4–7, lip amulets, 4 and 7 in shape of fish; Figs. 8–9, amulets in the shape of monsters. From “Jade,” by Berthold Laufer.

By courtesy of the author and Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. ]

Benjamin signifies “son of the right hand,” hence this name denotes strength and power. This meaning accords well with what is said in Jacob’s blessing: “Benjamin shall raven as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey and at night he shall divide the spoil.” The banded agate symbolizing this tribe would have the meaning “strength” and “mastery”; indeed, according to other sources the agate was reputed to bring victory to the wearer.

Dan is the “judge” among the tribes, according to the meaning of the name. In Jacob’s blessing Dan is said to be “a serpent by the way,” and “an adder in the path.” These metaphors, which may not strike us as commendatory of the tribe, probably indicated the craft and courage of the tribesmen in attacking and defeating their foes, and enriching themselves with the spoils of war. The amethyst, as the tribal stone of Dan, could thus signify both “judgment” and “craft.”

To the tribe of Gad was given the beryl, and the fact that spheres made from this stone were believed to be best adapted for use in crystal-gazing makes it an especially appropriate gem for the tribe of “good fortune,” this being the most probable signification of the name “Gad,” although in the Bible the interpretation “a troop,” is given. The beryl would therefore signify “good luck” and perhaps also “coöperation.”

The twelfth and last tribe, Asher, has the jasper for its gem. This would also gain an auspicious significance from its association with Asher, which means “happy.” To the other meanings assigned to jasper might be added that of “happiness.” As we have elsewhere remarked, there seems good reason to suppose that jade was frequently designated jasper in ancient times, and this stone was everywhere believed to possess wonderful magic powers.

The jasper[513] as an emblem of strength and fortitude is noted by St. Jerome in his commentary on Isaiah (liv, 11, 12), where he writes that the bulwarks or walls of the Holy City were strengthened by jasper. These bulwarks served “to overthrow and refute every proud attack against the knowledge of God, and to subject falsehood to truth. Whoever, therefore, is most convincing in debate and best fortified with texts of Holy Scripture is a bulwark of the Church.”[514] Jerome also alludes to the variety of jasper called _grammatias_, because of the peculiar markings, suggesting letters of the alphabet. This was believed to possess great talismanic virtue, especially in putting to flight phantoms and apparitions, since the markings were thought to signify some potent spell, written on the stone by nature’s hand. Of another kind of jasper, “white as snow or sea-foam,”[515] and having reddish stains, we are told that it symbolizes the spiritual graces, which preserve those endowed with them from vain terrors; and the learned Father quotes as descriptive of this stone the words of Solomon’s Song (v, 10): “My beloved is white and ruddy.”[516]

Writing of the sapphire (lapis lazuli), one of the foundation stones of the Holy City, St. Jerome likens it to heaven and to the air above us, adding, somewhat fancifully, that we might apply to the sapphire the words of Socrates in the “Clouds” of Aristophanes: “I walk upon air and look down upon the Sun.” Turning then to Holy Scripture, Jerome notes the well-known passage in Ezekiel (i, 26) where the Throne of God is said to have “the appearance of a sapphire stone,” and finds in this text a proof that blue denoted the glory of God.[517] The ingenuity of the ancient commentators in finding hidden meanings in the simplest things is well shown by the assertion of Thomas de Cantimpré that St. John placed the emerald fourth in the list of foundation stones, because the _four_ evangelists are constant in their praise of chastity.[518]

Certain gems and stones have a definite relation and appropriateness to the various religious holidays and festivals. Notable among these is the rhodonite, a silicate of magnesia, named from the Greek word _rhodon_, “a rose,” because of its beautiful rose-pink hue. This is found more especially in the Ural Mountains, and in Massachusetts, but in a number of other places as well. In the Ural Mountains one single mass was so immense that ninety horses were needed to move the 22–ton weight a distance of thirty miles to the Imperial Lapidary Works at Ekaterineburg; here the material was cut up into smaller masses to be finally worked up in the Imperial Lapidary Works at Peterhof into a sarcophagus and tomb for the Emperor Nicholas I.

This stone is a great favorite in Russia, and is frequently cut into egg-shaped ornaments, either in the form of a simple egg, or of one with a halo and a moonstone effect at one end. It may well be termed the “Easter Stone.” For those unable to afford such an egg-shaped piece of rhodonite, a yellow fibrous gypsum or satinspar cut into a similar form may be substituted. Jade cut in the same way is also sometimes favored, as well as many varieties of rock-crystal.

In marked contrast with the joyful festival of Easter stands the most solemn day of the Christian year, Good Friday, and for this day also we have a singularly appropriate stone, the variety of jasper known as the bloodstone. Here the red markings can be regarded as symbolical of the blood of Our Lord, shed for the salvation of mankind in the supreme sacrifice of the Passion. When the head of the Christ is cut in this stone it is often possible to utilize the red spots to figure the drops of blood flowing from the wounds inflicted by the Crown of Thorns.

With the glad tidings of Christmas Day is intimately associated the memory of the Star of Bethlehem, which served as a beacon light to guide the three wise men of the East to the humble manger wherein reposed the newly-born Saviour of the World. Hence for this great Christian festival no gem can equal the star-sapphire, combining as it does the pure sapphire-hue, always looked upon as symbolic of the highest moral, spiritual, and religious sentiments, and the mysterious moving star, which, shifting its apparent place with the slightest movement of the stone, seems endowed with a wonderful independent life, just as the phenomenal star of Bethlehem, unlike the fixed and changeless stars of the firmament, glided through the heavenly expanse, by a miraculous motion, due indeed to some supernatural law, but differing in kind and degree from all the usual, every-day aspects of nature.

The symbolism of precious stones presented in so many different ways by the early ecclesiastical writers appears in the prayer offered by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the coronation of the kings and queens of England. While the king kneels upon a footstool, the archbishop takes St. Edward’s Crown and lays it upon the altar; whereupon he pronounces the following words:

[Illustration:

LA MADONNA DELLA SALUTE, BY OTTAVIANO NELLI

In the Basilica of S. Francesco at Assisi. ]

O, God, the crown of the faithful, who on the heads of Thy saints placed crowns of glory, bless and sanctify this crown, that as the same is adorned with divers precious stones, so this Thy servant, wearing it, may be replenished of Thy grace, with the manifold gifts of all precious virtues, through the King eternal, Thy Son our Lord. Amen.”[519]

In a tractate “Of the Crown of the Virgin,” ascribed to Saint Ildefonso (607–669), the writer describes this wondrous gold crown as adorned with twelve precious stones, six splendid stars, and six beautiful and fragrant flowers, thus uniting the fairest treasures of earth and sky in honor of the Queen of Heaven.[520]

The gems, stars and flowers are given in the following order: Topaz, Sirius, sard, lily, chalcedony, Arcturus, sapphire, crocus, agate, the evening star, jasper, the rose, carbuncle, the Sun, emerald, the violet, amethyst, the Moon, chrysolite, sun-flower, chrysoprase, Orion, beryl, camomile. “That thus,” the writer concludes, “with precious stones, radiant luminaries, and fair flowers, a splendid crown may be ennobled, beautified and adorned, and may be the more willingly and gladly accepted by Our Lady.”

In a private collection in Smyrna there is a black hematite engraved somewhat in the style of an Abraxas gem; and certainly not Christian. On it is represented a galloping horseman, beneath whose steed is a crouching man; above the rider’s head appears a star. The reverse bears the inscription: σφραγίς θεοῦ, “seal of God.” In contrast with this is an intaglio carnelian of the Munich Royal Collection, with the figures of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, and the Greek words ἡ ἐικὼν τῆς ἁγίας Μαρίας, “the image of the Holy Mary.” This is one of the best examples of Byzantine work in gem-cutting.[521]

One of the very curious cases of the employment of a purely secular Roman gem for ecclesiastical uses is offered by the exceedingly beautiful convex blue aquamarine engraved with the head of Julia, daughter of Titus, a fine work of the Augustan Age, now in the French Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. This was donated in the ninth century by the Carolingian emperor, Charles the Bald, to the Treasury of St. Denis, after it had been given a setting of pearls and precious stones. In St. Denis it was placed at the apex of a reliquary, which became known as the Oratorium of Charlemagne, and the head of the vain and worldly princess is said to have been venerated by the pious monks and priests as that of the Virgin Mary. As a work of portrait art this gem is one of the finest examples from classic times.[522]

The strange decadence and the conventionalized but profoundly earnest quality of Early Christian art is shown in an intaglio gem of the Royal Numismatic Museum in Munich. This is a dark-hued sardonyx of two layers, and the engraving depicts a bearded Christ, enthroned and accompanied by the twelve apostles, six on either side, four of them beardless while the remainder are represented with beards; they are all gazing reverently upon the central figure, behind whose head appear the arms of the cross and above them the letters _I̅C̅_ _X̅C̅_ Ἰησοῦς Χριστός.[523] Another somewhat similar Early Christian gem is a cameo cut in a sardonyx of three layers, the groundwork being a brownish-black, and the figures of a light-bluish hue, the upper parts yellowish-brown. Here also we have an enshrined Christ; above his head two angels hold a diadem. This is of superior workmanship to the intaglio gem just described.[524] There is a sardonyx cameo showing a rude figure of the Prophet Daniel, a lion on either side of him, and inscribed with his name in Greek letters. This is of Byzantine workmanship.[525]

The reliquarium of Wittekind, now in the Kunstgewerbe Museum at Berlin, is considered to be probably the most important specimen of early Frankish goldsmith-work that has been preserved, and is richly set with precious stones, some of these being ancient gems. This is one of a number of cases where engraved stones of Pagan times were used in the adornment of ornamental objects destined for Christian religious use. The upper edge shows a row of entwined animal figures, and the front side has medallions with primitive bird forms in cloisonné enamel; on the reverse side are very rudely executed repoussé figures of saints. This work is assigned to the latter part of the eighth century A.D., and is conjectured to have been a gift from Charlemagne to the Saxon King Wittekind, on the occasion of the latter’s conversion to Christianity in the year 807. It was long preserved in Wittekind’s foundation at Enger near Herford, to which he had bequeathed his treasures; in 1414 it was removed for safe-keeping to the Johanniskirche at Herford, where it remained until 1888, when it came into the possession of the Berlin Kunstgewerbe Museum. This precious example of the earliest German work has the form of a small portable satchel, in which could be placed those sacred relics the owner might wish to bear around with him because of the protection they were assumed to afford.[526]

One of the most notable and valuable objects in the famous Guelph treasure that has recently been brought back to the city of Brunswick as a result of the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland’s son, Ernest Augustus, with the daughter of Emperor William II, is an elaborately designed cross, a very fine specimen of the goldsmith’s art of the twelfth century. This with the other treasures was taken by the Duke of Cumberland to Vienna for safe-keeping, at the time he gave up, in 1884, his title as Duke of Brunswick, rather than acknowledge Prussian supremacy. The cross, which has the form of a so-called “crutch-cross,” with rectangular projecting plates at the ends of the arms, was designed to serve as a reliquary, the relic shrine being in a cruciform capsule behind a small, round-edged golden cross set in the midst of the cross proper. The precious relics reposing here were said to be bones of John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. Mark the Evangelist, and St. Sebastian. On the reverse side of the cross are set four large and beautiful sapphires and in the centre is a remarkably brilliant topaz.

While nothing definite is known as to the goldsmith who executed this work, its style and general character suggest the conjecture that it may have been produced by the artist who made the “Crown of Charlemagne” in Vienna, really a crown executed for Conrad III, King of the Germans (1093–1152), the first Hohenstaufen, and also several regal ornaments for the latter’s consort, Queen Gisela. In addition to the jewelled decoration of its reverse, the front of the cross is set with many pearls, and the form of these settings is one of the chief arguments adduced in favor of attributing it to the maker of the so-called “Crown of Charlemagne.”[527]

An ecclesiastical jewel of great beauty and remarkable historic interest is known as the Cross of Zaccaria. It was secured in 1308 by Ticino Zaccaria at the capture of the ancient Greek colonial city Phocæa, in Asia Minor, and was donated to the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa. This cross is of silver gilt, measuring 64 cm. in height and 40 cm. in width, and within it behind a crystal is set a piece of the Holy Cross. It is profusely adorned with precious and semi-precious stones, there being 57 good-sized rubies, emeralds, sapphires, carnelians, malachites and amethysts, besides 44 smaller stones and 299 of still lesser size. The jewel is now preserved in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa.

The greatest treasure in the Cathedral of Chartres was the “Sacred Shrine.” It was made of cedar-wood covered with gold plates and was adorned with an immense number of precious stones including diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, jacinths, agates, turquoises, opals, topazes, onyxes, chrysolites, amethysts, garnets, girasols, sardonyxes, asterias, chalcedonies, heliotropes, etc. These had been presented by many different donors during a long period of time. In front of this shrine was a cross composed entirely of precious stones, comprising 56 rubies and garnets, 18 sapphires, 22 pearls, 8 emeralds, 8 onyxes and 4 jacinths. When this was first placed in the cathedral is not known, but it was there in 1353, as it is noted in an inventory made at that time. An uncut diamond weighing about 45 carats, and constituting one of the adornments of the shrine in 1682, was said to have been the gift of a marshal of France; another ornament, an oval agate engraved with the Virgin and Child, may now be seen in the Louvre where it forms part of the Sauvageot Collection.[528]

That all trace has been lost of an emerald engraved with the head of Christ and given to Pope Innocent VIII by Sultan Bajazet II about the year 1488, is greatly to be deplored, even though there be no truth in the legend or report that it had been engraved in the time of Christ by the order of Tiberius Cæsar. The evidence of two medals with Latin legends and of certain old paintings with English inscriptions of the sixteenth century seems to prove the existence of the gem in the Vatican treasury about the time specified, and it has been conjectured, with some probability, that the emerald had been engraved by a Byzantine artist at some time before 1453, when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks, and that this gem formed part of the booty they then secured. A print, often copied photographically and otherwise, purporting to be a representation of this emerald portrait of Christ, has no evidential value, and has either been freely worked up from the details of the spurious letter of Lentulus to Tiberius, giving a personal description of the Saviour, or still more probably from a Rafaelesque type of Christ’s head.[529]

The beads of rosaries, when blessed by the Supreme Pontiff, or by one of the dignitaries of the Church, are considered to be endowed with a certain special virtue in favor of the individual for whom the blessing is imparted. However, should this person loan the beads to another with the intention of making him a partaker of this special blessing, or indulgencing, they lose their virtue. It is prescribed that these beads should be made of stone, glass, or some other durable material not easily broken, in order that the effects of the blessing should not be lost, or perhaps that the object so blessed should be less liable to injury. Various precious stones as well as pearls are used for this purpose, there being generally groups of ten small spheres, each group separated from the other by a larger sphere, the ten smaller beads serving to numerate the paternosters while the large bead is passed through the fingers when a credo has been recited.

A legend very popular in the Middle Ages has been conjectured to be the source of the word “rosary” as applied to a chaplet of beads for counting prayers. This legend tells of a pious youth, who on each and every day wove a garland of roses for the statue of the Virgin in the parish church. His religious zeal soon induced him to become a monk, and as the restrictions and duties of monastic life forced him to discontinue his floral offerings, he was much troubled in conscience, and was only relieved when the abbot told him that by reciting 150 aves at the close of each day, he would please the Virgin as much as by the gift of flowers. The prayers were faithfully said and they eventually became the occasion of a miracle. One evening, as the young monk was traversing a dense forest, it suddenly occurred to him that he had forgotten to recite his aves. He knelt down quickly and began to pray; all at once he saw a radiant and beautiful figure standing before him, and he immediately recognized in it the Blessed Virgin. Graciously she bent over him and drew from his lips one rose after the other, until fifty roses of supernatural beauty lay upon the ground. Of these she then made a garland and placed it upon the head of her faithful servant.[530]

The first literary allusion to rosaries in India is in a Jain treatise written about the beginning of our era. The Prakrit name here employed, _ganettiya_, is equivalent to the sanscrit _ganayitrika_, or “counter,” and it is enumerated among the ten utensils of a Brahman ascetic. The other nine are the tridanda-stick, the water jar, the Bramanical thread, the earthen vessel named karotikâ, the bundle of straw used as a seat, the clout, the six-knotted wood, the hook, and the finger-ring. It is said that no mention of rosaries has been found in Indian Buddhist literature.[531]

A splendid ecclesiastical ornament is described in the inventory of the royal treasures in the Château de Fontainebleau made in 1560, on the accession of Charles IX. This was of gold and composed of a crucifix with the figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John. It was “enriched with 41 sapphires, 3 pointed diamonds and 12 balas-rubies,” which served to mark the nails in the cross. The weight of the gold was 25 marks 5 ounces, and the value of the entire object, gold and precious stones, is given as 2720 écus, or about $6120. The intrinsic value of the gold alone would be about $4240.[532]

The most impressive of the ecclesiastical ornaments in the Spanish churches was the _custodia_, or monstrance, in which the Holy Eucharist was borne through the streets on Corpus Christi day; indeed, only at this time was the custodia publicly shown. It was in fact a large shrine, generally affecting the form of a church tower. The most ancient example now in existence is in the Cathedral of Gerona. It is of gold, is 1.85 m. (over 6 feet) high, and weighs nearly 66 pounds. This work, in which the architectural style is an ornate Gothic, was completed in 1458 by the goldsmith Francisco de Asís Artau. One of the finest specimens, however, was executed by Enrique d’Arphe for Charles V and is in the Cathedral of Toledo. This _custodia_ measures no less than nine feet in height and is three feet wide. Here also the form is that of a Gothic tower; the cross at the apex was made by the goldsmith Lainez, and is adorned with 86 pearls and 4 large emeralds.

The shrine itself contains 795 marks’ weight of silver (about 600 pounds), the gold in its composition weighing 57 marks, or about 38 pounds. The Venetian Navagero estimated its worth to be 30,000 ducats.[533]

The wife of Marshal Junot, the celebrated Duchesse d’Abrantès, seeks to exonerate her husband and to refute the many charges of spoliation brought against him during and after the French occupation of Spain in 1808 and the succeeding years. For her, Marshal Lannes was a much worse offender, and she asserts that after the siege of Saragossa in 1809, Lannes secured possession of the immensely valuable treasures of the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, treasures valued at nearly $1,000,000. On his arrival in Paris, Lannes informed Napoleon that he had brought with him from Spain “a few colored stones of little value,” and was graciously told that he could keep them for himself. The finest jewel of this collection contained 1300 diamonds, nine of which were of great magnitude and value; the jewel was heart-shaped, and had in the centre a dove, typifying the Holy Spirit, with wings extended. It had been given to the church by Doña Barbara de Portugal, Queen of Spain.[534]

About the year 1630 there could be seen in Paris a crucifix a foot and a half high, all of a single piece of yellow amber; on either side were the figures of the Virgin Mary and of St. John respectively, each carved in most excellent style. The writer who gives this information, a lineal descendant of Lodowyk van Berghem, commonly regarded as the first diamond-cutter, tells from hearsay evidence of a marvellous emerald which six hundred years before his time, or about 1060, hung suspended from the top of the nave of the Cathedral of Mainz. It was “as large as half-a-melon,” and was of exceeding brilliance.[535]

The writer of a Bohemian poem on the legend of St. Catherine’s betrothal to Christ, written about 1355, appears to have been, in one part, inspired by the glowing adornment of the Wenceslaus chapel in the cathedral of St. Veit. The poet gives an enthusiastic description of the gorgeous ornamentation of the mystic, imaginary temple in which the betrothal takes place. The pavement is of aquamarine beryl, the walls are studded with diamonds in golden settings, the framework of the windows is alternately of emerald or of sapphire, and the window-panes are not of stained glass, but of precious or semi-precious stones. Some of these are not ill fitted for this use, the transparency of rubies, amethysts, spinels, jacinths, garnets, and similar stones, admitting quite sufficient light; but others mentioned here, such as turquoises, chalcedonys and jaspers, would permit but a dim ray of light to traverse their opaque or semi-opaque substance. It has been conjectured by some that the poet drew his material from the account of the temple of the Holy Grail in the old German legend, probably through a Bohemian version; but as he omits in his enumeration twelve of the stones given in the Grail legend, and adds a number of others, diamond, turquoise, chalcedony, garnet, etc., this literary source is not fully satisfactory. Rather might it be believed that the splendid decoration of the Wenceslaus chapel and of the Karlstein Castle suggested the vision wrought out by the Bohemian poet, especially as among the stones he mentions which are not in the Grail legend, we have the garnet, so eminently a product of Bohemia.[536]

A peculiar and very interesting facetted diamond of 6³⁄₃₂ carats displays alternate black and white facets and presents the appearance of a clearly defined Greek cross in black outline when viewed by transmitted light. The original crystal, which came from Brazil and weighed 10½ carats, was an octahedron and was of a jet black hue. The expectation was that the result of its cutting would be the production of a black brilliant, but when one of the points of the octahedron had been removed to form the table, it became evident that the black tint was only superficial, the body of the crystal being white. This peculiarity was then utilized by leaving some of the natural black faces of the crystal. This diamond was found to be of excessive hardness, rendering the task of cutting it an exceedingly arduous one. It is now in the possession of one of the Royal Household of Siam.[537]

Among the Buddhist legends current in India in the seventh century A.D. is one referring to the vases offered by the “four kings of heaven” to the Buddha. They first brought four gold vases, but the Buddha declared that one who had renounced the world could not use such costly vases. Silver vessels were then substituted, and were also refused, as were successively vases made of rock-crystal, lapis lazuli, carnelian, amber, ruby and other precious materials. Finally, four stone vases were proffered. These were of violet color and transparent, but the fact that they were not of precious material rendered them acceptable to the Buddha.[538]

The images of Buddha usually bear as adornment a small gem. This is most frequently a moonstone, but occasionally a ruby or some other gem will be used. The reason for this religious use of gems must not be sought only in the idea that precious and costly objects are most fitting as decorations of the sacred images, but it also implies a certain belief in the magic or quasi-sacred character of the gem itself.

The Saddharma-Pundarîka, one of the nine most sacred books of the Buddhists, composed perhaps as early as the beginning of our era, gives the following description of a celestial stûpra, a sort of shrine containing a celestial being:[539]

It [the _stûpra_] consisted of seven precious substances, _viz._, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, musaragalva, emerald, red coral, and Karketana stone.

This _stûpra_ of precious substances once formed, the gods of paradise strewed and covered it with _mandârava_ and great mandâra flowers. And from that stûpra of precious substances there issued the voice: “Excellent, excellent, Lord Sâkyamuni! thou hast well expounded the Dharmapayârya of the Lotus of the True Law. So is it, Lord; so is it, _sugata_.”

Some of the most valuable temple treasures in the Island of Ceylon were preserved in a pagoda near the frontiers of the realm of Saula. The report of the gold and jewels accumulated here excited the avidity of the Portuguese, then in control of a considerable part of the island, and finally an energetic attempt was made to gain possession of them. Although the existence of the pagoda was well attested, the Portuguese were ignorant of its exact location in the tract of forest land wherein it stood. The expeditionary force consisted of 150 Portuguese and 2000 Lascars. On nearing the forest they placed themselves under the guidance of a native captured in the neighborhood. He led them through the woodland, traversing it hither and thither, but no pagoda appeared. Suddenly the native exhibited signs of madness, which were at first believed to be simulated, but were later regarded as genuine, on which he was made away with and another native substituted, however, with the same result. One after another five natives showed the same symptoms and were successively put to death, and at last the Portuguese were compelled to abandon this unsuccessful quest. We have here either a remarkable example of fidelity to the temple, or else an instance of the psychic influence of the terror inspired by the risk of violating it. Undoubtedly the priests represented the result as due to supernatural influence, and perhaps really felt justified in doing so.[540]

An official account of the embassy of the Cinghalese monarch Kirti Sri to Siam, in 1750, offers a description of the magnificent pagoda erected over the Sacred Footprint of Buddha, at Swarna Panchatha Maha Pahath. The free use of sapphires and rubies is quite natural, when we consider that some of the finest specimens of these stones are still found in this region:[541]

Above the sacred footstep and made of solid gold was a pagoda supported on suitable pillars, forming a shrine. At the four corners were placed four golden _sésat_, and from above hung four bunches of precious stones like bunches of ripe areca-nuts in size. On the edge of the roof hung ropes of pearls, and on the point of the spire was set a sapphire the size of a lime fruit. Within and overshadowing the footprint like a canopy, there hung from the middle of the spire a full-blown lotus of gold, in the middle of which was set a ruby of similar size. Chariots, ships, elephants, and horses with their riders, all made of gold, and of a suitable size, were placed on a golden support above the silver pavement. This was hung on wires of gold, to which were hung ornaments set with pearls the size of the _nelli_ fruit, as well as other jewelled ornaments, rings and chains. By some skilful device all this could be moved along the silver pavement.

Recent excavations made by Dr. J. H. Marshall in the Punjab, India, on the site of the ancient city of Taxila, captured by Alexander the Great during his Indian campaign, have brought to light many valuable Buddhist remains, dating from about 2000 years ago. One of the most striking of these is a relic casket taken from a _tope_ of the type called _dagoba_, this name designating that class of those Buddhist structures designed especially for the reception of relics. This relic casket is of steatite, and contained a golden box within which was a fragment of bone, presumably regarded as a relic of the Buddha; around it were many pearls as well as engraved carnelians and also a number of other precious stones.

A carved sapphire, once in the collection of the Marquess of Northampton, shows a representation of the Hindu divinity, Siva. It is of Indian workmanship and the stone measures 1½ inches in length, 1½ inches in width and ¾ inch in thickness.[542]

One of the writers most familiar with Indian gem-lore recognizes that while the rich and educated Hindus of our day wear diamonds and other gems chiefly as ornaments, in ancient times these brilliant objects were more largely employed in India to enrich the images of the gods, thus rendering the idols more impressive and causing them to be worshipped with more intense fervor. In ancient India gemmed ornaments were believed to bring to the wearer “respect, fame, longevity, wealth, happiness, strength, and fruition”; a list of benefits long enough to satisfy the most exigent. However, as though this were not enough, we are further assured that these gems “ward off evil astral influences, make the body healthy, remove misery and ill-fortune, and wash away sin.”[543]

[Illustration:

Ceremony annually observed in the Mogul Empire of weighing the sovereign against precious metals, jewels and other valuable objects, which were distributed as gifts. From “Histoire générale des cérémonies religieuses de tous les peuples du monde,” by Abbé Banier and Abbé Mascrier, Paris, 1741. ]

The oldest jewel offered to a shrine by an Indian potentate, of which we have certain knowledge, was a magnificent pendant containing a number of precious stones, the gift of Sundara Pandiyan, at a date prior to 1310 A.D. Another magnificent gift was a gorgeous jewelled turban adorned with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls, bestowed in 1623 by Trimal Nayakkan.[544] These gifts or dedications show the prevailing tendency to propitiate the higher powers and insure success in royal enterprises.

The English ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, sent to the court of Shah Jehangir by King James I, saw the Shah on the day of his great birthday festival when he was weighed against a great variety of objects, jewels, gold, silver, stuffs of gold and silver, silk, butter, rice, fruits, etc. All these things, heaped up on the scale balancing the one in which stood the Shah, were distributed as imperial gifts after the conclusion of the ceremony. Sir Thomas Roe declares that on this occasion (he missed seeing the actual weighing) the monarch was adorned with a great array of jewels, and he adds: “I must confess I never saw at one time such unspeakable wealth,” a testimony of considerable value, for the English Court in the time of James I was one by no means poor in jewels, that sovereign having a great fondness for them. After the ceremony of weighing had been completed, Jehangir enjoyed the spectacle of a procession of twelve troupes of his choicest elephants, each troupe led by a “lord elephant of exceptional stature.” The finest of these had all the plates on his head and breast set with rubies and emeralds, and all the elephants as they neared the Shah saluted him with their trunks.[545]

In Persia the pink and red coral was believed to have acquired its beautiful color after removal from the water, and the odor of the material was said to be a trustworthy means of discriminating between genuine and imitation coral; genuine coral had the smell of sea-water. The Chinese and the Hindus prized this substance very highly, because among them it was used to adorn the images of the gods.[546]

The perforated jade disk called _ts’ang pi_ is still used as the symbol of the deity Heaven (T’ien) in the temple of that divinity at Peking. By a regulation of Emperor K’ien-lung, the proper dimensions of this ceremonial disk were rigidly established; the diameter of the disk proper was set at 6.1 inches, and its thickness at ⁷⁄₁₀ of an inch; the perforation was to have a diameter of ⁴⁄₁₀ of an inch. While the quality of the jade to be employed is not especially determined, the name _ts’ang_ implies jade of a bluish shade. The veined type of stone is regarded as peculiarly adapted for this purpose.[547]

[Illustration:

PERFORATED JADE DISK CALLED _TS’ANG PI_, A CHINESE SYMBOL OF THE DEITY HEAVEN (T’IEN)

From Berthold Laufer, “Jade, a Study in Chinese Archæology and Religion,” Chicago, 1912, p. 157.

By courtesy of the Author and Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. ]

We are apt to regard Tibet as the land least accessible to modern influence of any kind, and that least in touch with any aspect of European civilization. It seems, therefore, not a little strange that at the chief altar of the Royal Chapel in the Dalai Lama’s palace on Potala Hill, Lhasa, the elaborate _tse-boum_ (incense vase or vessel), used by the Buddhist priests in their services, is a product of modern Parisian art, having been made in Paris about ten years ago. The vessel proper, which is carved from several exceptionally large pieces of coral, rests upon a flat, silver-gilt base, ornamented with two dragons, and is crowned with an oval framework of lapis lazuli leaves; upon this framework is a coral statuette of Amitabha, the “Lord of Boundless Light,” revered as the emanation of Adi-Buddha, supported by a lotus flower of white chalcedony. At the apex of the leafy oval rests a representation in white chalcedony of a crescent moon, above is a sun in yellow stone from which springs a coral flame, symbolizing the radiance of wisdom (_nada_). Although the Dalai Lama was anxious to avail himself of the aid of French art for the embellishment of his altar, he took due precautions that the religious character of the vessel should be properly conceived and maintained, and therefore sent one of his high-priests to Europe to choose the artists best fitted for the execution of the vessel, and this priest took the pains to make a special trip to Leghorn in order to select the coral appropriate for the sacred utensil. As will be noted, this material, so greatly prized by the Tibetans, is that most prominent in this temple incense vase. The dragons attached to the silver-gilt platter have been placed there to honor the Chinese, and are so affixed that they can be removed when no Chinese representatives are present at the ceremonies. In the older _tse-boum_, to take the place of which this Paris product was executed, the red-tinted ivory was used where coral appears in the newer vessel. The employment of this color is due to the fact that it is the sacred color of Amitabha.[548]

Within the sacred precincts of the temple of Cho Kang, in Tibet, is a splendid, life-size image of the Buddha formed of solid gold. The priests teach that it is of supernatural origin, and ascribe its execution to the creative energy of Visvakarma, a personification of the formative energy in the cosmos. The gold in this image is, however, not absolutely pure, but is alloyed with silver, copper, zinc and iron, the choice of these four metal alloys being dictated by the significance of the five metals in union as symbols of the world. The precious-stone adornment of this wonderful idol consists of magnificent diamonds, rubies, emeralds and _indranila_ or Indian sapphires. Pearl, turquoise and coral necklaces are twined around the figure’s neck and crossed over its breast; on its head rests a golden coronet with a setting of turquoises, and rising from the rim of this coronet are five upright leaves within each of which is a small golden image of the Buddha; from one of these hangs as a pendant a remarkably fine, large and flawless piece of turquoise, measuring six inches in length and four inches in width. All these splendors lavished upon the image of the great apostle of the simple life show but a poor comprehension of the deep meanings and tendencies of his early career.

Treating of the religious associations of turquoise among the Tibetans, Dr. Berthold Laufer writes:[549]

Turquoises, usually in connection with gold, belong to the most ancient propitiatory offerings to the gods and demons; in the enumeration, gold always precedes turquois as the more valuable gift. They also figure among the presents bestowed on saints and Lamas by kings and wealthy laymen. The thrones on which kings and Lamas take their place are usually described as adorned with gold and turquoises, and they wear cloaks ornamented with these stones. It may be inferred from traditions and epic stories that in ancient times arrow-heads were made not only of common flint, but also occasionally of turquois to which a high value was attached. A powerful saint, by touching the bow and arrow of a blacksmith, transforms the bow into gold, and the arrow-head into turquois.

In the native languages of Mexico and Central America the name _chalchiḥuitl_ most frequently designates jadeite, but it appears sometimes to have been applied to other stones of a green or greenish-blue color, such as the so-called amazon-stone from the region of the Amazon River, and even occasionally to the turquoise. Thus the talismanic value of the chalchihuitl seems to have depended rather upon its hue and its rarity, than upon its mineralogical character; indeed, among primitive peoples, stones of the same, or closely similar color, although of different composition, often bore the same name, and were conceived to have the same virtues whether talismanic or therapeutic. Writing of the rich gifts sent by Montezuma to Cortés upon the latter’s arrival at San Juan de Ulúa (1519), Bernal Diaz de Castillo mentions[550] “four chalchiuites, a kind of green stone of great value, and much esteemed by them [the Indians], more highly, indeed, than we esteem the emerald. They are of a green color.” And he proceeds to state that each one of these stones was said to be worth a great weight of gold.

The statue of the earth-goddess Couatlicue, found in the village of Cozcatlan, Mexico, and now preserved in the National Museum of Mexico, shows, inserted in the cheek, a disk of jadeite.[551] Green seems thus to have been the color sacred to this goddess, which may remind us of the attribution of the green emerald to Venus. Indeed, green as the color of foliage and plants must naturally have suggested itself as eminently appropriate for an earth-goddess, just as its significance as a symbol of life and generation connected it with the Goddess of Love.

The story of the emeralds brought from the New World by Hernan Cortés must have been quite familiar to sixteenth century writers, for we find Brantôme applying some details of this story to “a beautiful and incomparable pearl” said to have been brought from Mexico by Cortés on his return to Spain. This he later allowed to slip from his fingers into the sea while showing it to a friend on board the ship that was bearing him toward Algiers; it was lost in the sea, and in the words of Brantôme “vanished from the sight of mankind, unworthy to possess such a miracle of nature.” The loss of this pearl is looked upon by the French writer as a punishment for the “inscription” Cortés had caused to be placed upon it: Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major;[552] this refers to John the Baptist and was, as we have seen, engraved upon one of the famous emeralds of Cortés. Brantôme believes that its application to a simple product of nature was sacrilegious and the cause of the object’s loss; he also sees in this loss an omen of the death of the Emperor Charles which occurred shortly afterward, and he draws attention to the fact that the “Africans” called their kings “precious stones.”[553]

The Aztec art-workers of the period immediately antedating the Spanish Conquest had attained a high order of skill in the difficult work of inlaying carefully cut and shaped bits of precious material so as to produce some form or design of symbolic or religious meaning. In judging the artistic merit of such work, we must always remember that the Aztec inlayers were only provided with rude and primitive tools and implements for the execution of their task, and extraordinary patience and application must have been necessary to complete some of the objects that have been preserved for us. This art seems only to have been cultivated in ancient Mexico and Central America, and perhaps Peru also; of the Mexican work some twenty-five examples have been saved. The Spaniards, shortly after their first landing, were given an opportunity to judge of the quality of this Aztec inlaying, for among the gifts sent by Montezuma to Cortés, were five such objects, a mask with incrustations of turquoise, so disposed as to figure two intertwined serpents; a crozier, also with turquoise mosaic and ending in a serpent’s head; a pair of large ear-rings of serpentine form decorated with the _chalchihuitl_ stone (perhaps nephrite or jadeite); a mitre of ocelot skin, surmounted by a large _chalchihuitl_, and also decorated with turquoise mosaic, and a staff of office with similar inlays. A serpent-mask answering to the description of one of Montezuma’s gifts is now in the British Museum and is in a fairly good state of preservation, although unfortunately the two serpent-heads have been lost. Evidently this mask was used in connection with the worship of Quetzalcoatl, the serpent-god, an incarnation of which deity the poor Aztecs at first believed Cortés to be.[554]

[Illustration:

By courtesy of Dr. Edward H. Thompson.

THE SACRED WELL OF CHICHEN ITZA

Wherein, according to tradition, human victims and votive offerings of great value were cast. ]

Surpassing this mask in a certain strange and weird interest, and equalling it in artistic workmanship, is another most remarkable Aztec ceremonial mask, also in the British Museum Collection. The foundation of this is the front part of a human skull, and its outer surface has been covered with an incrustation of turquoise and jet mosaic in five alternate bands, the upper, middle and lower ones being of jet, while the two intermediate ones are of shaped pieces of turquoise; part of the nose has been removed and the space covered over by tablets of pink shell; protruding eyeballs are figured by convex disks of polished iron pyrites with a bordering of white shell; a number of the teeth have been broken out. Straps attached at the temples rendered it possible to bind this mask to the face of an idol, or for a priest of high rank to wear it on solemn ceremonial occasions.

Some three hundred yards or more from the great temple pyramid at Chichen Itzá, Yucatan, Mexico, at the termination of the Sacred Way traversed in times of tribulation, of pestilence or famine, by processions of priests conveying sacrifices to be offered to the offended divinities, was the Sacred Well. Into this the priests would throw the ornaments and trinkets dedicated to the gods as peace-offerings. But such inanimate objects were regarded as insufficient, and even animal sacrifices were deemed to be inadequate, and hence it often happened that prisoners of war and fair maidens were cast into the deep, still waters of the Sacred Well.[555]

Many fragments of the carved stone ornaments have been recovered from the depths of this Sacred Well, and even in their present imperfect state, they testify to a considerable development of the lapidarian art among the ancient Mayas, and a high degree of artistic skill in the fashioning of such objects of adornment. Undoubtedly those used in this way as sacred offerings were considered to be amulets and therefore to be the more acceptable in the sight of the gods.

That lapis lazuli was as much favored for religious use by the aborigines of the New World as it was in ancient Egypt and in other parts of the Old World, is shown by the recent discovery of twenty-eight carefully formed cylindrical beads of lapis lazuli among some very ancient deposits in the island of La Plata, Ecuador. From the general character of these deposits it is evident that they did not belong to permanent dwellers on the island, and there is every reason to believe that they were left by visitors from the mainland, who came to the island for the performance of certain sacred rites and ceremonies.[556]

[Illustration:

By courtesy of Dr. Edward H. Thompson.

CARVED AND WORKED STONES FROM THE SACRED WELL AT CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN, MEXICO ]

The ancient Mexicans held the turquoise in high esteem, and that Los Cerrillos and other mines in Arizona and New Mexico were extensively worked prior to the discovery of America is proved by fragments of Aztec pottery-vases; by drinking, eating, and cooking utensils; by stone hammers, wedges, mauls, and idols which have been discovered in the debris found in many different localities.

While Major Hyde was exploring this neighborhood in 1880, he was visited by several Pueblo Indians from San Domingo, who stated that the turquoise he was taking from the old mine was sacred, and must not go into the hands of those whose Saviour was not a Montezuma, and these Indians offered, at the same time, to purchase all that might come from the mine in the future.

About ten miles from Tempe, Arizona, in ruins designated as Los Muertos, there was found enclosed in asbestos, in a decorated Zuñi jar, a sea-shell coated with black pitch, in which were incrusted turquoise and garnets, in the form of a toad, the sacred emblem of the Zuñi. Incrusted clam shells, representing toads, may be seen in the Brunswick Collection, the Christie Collection in the British Museum, and in the Pitorini Museum, Rome.

At the annual Fiesta which is attended by the San Felipe, the Navajo, the Isleta, the Acoma, the Jicorrilla, Apache and other Indians at the Pueblo of Santo Domingo, a place situated about three miles west by south of Wallace Station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad, a carved wooden image of the saint, about four feet in height, and said to date from the time of the conquest in 1692, is carried in procession through the principal streets to a small tent made of the finest Navajo blankets, where it is placed on an improvised altar. Here various offerings are made. Among them strings of turquoise beads, both round and flat, of the choicest color, are suspended from the ears of the figure, and from a string which encircles its neck. On the centre of the breast is one of the curious turquoise-encrusted marine clam-shells similar to the one found by Lieutenant F. H. Cushing in the excavations near Tempe, Arizona. The writer saw a fine example of this ornamental object suspended from the neck of the Virgin of Santo Domingo, at the Annual Fiesta, August 4, 1890. With the exception of a black band of obsidian running across the centre, the entire exterior of the shell is covered with a sort of miniature pavement of little squares of turquoise which are cemented to it with a black shellac-like substance obtained from “the grease-wood” plant common in New Mexico.[557]

It has been suggested that the types of ornamentation used by the aborigines of Central America may become fashionable at the time of the opening of the Panama Canal. In jewelry the crawfish model, as shown in a gold-plated ornament discovered in the Chiriqui district of Panama, offers a striking and peculiar form which might win favor; a curious frog pattern could also be used. If the local usage in ancient times is to be considered, the emerald and other green stones would be given the preference for decoration, as stones of this color were the most in favor among the primitive inhabitants of Central America because it symbolized the verdure of field and forest, and hence youth and vigor. When set in gold these stones gained in symbolic value, for gold, having the color of the sun, was regarded as typical of force, courage, and vitality.

The mystic lake of Guatavita, high up on the Andean plateau of Colombia, South America, was the chief holy place of the native Indians of this locality hundreds of years ago, at a time when gold and emeralds were plentiful among them, luxuries unknown to their impoverished descendants of our day. Legend had taught them to regard this lake as the abiding place of a powerful divinity or demon, whose good will must be secured at any price if dire disease were to be held aloof from the people. Four other sacred lakes on the plateau, Guasca, Siecha, Teusaca, and Ubaque, shared in a lesser degree with the principal one in the attribution of mysterious power. As early as 1534 word was brought to Sebastian de Belalcazar, founder of Quito, that in the course of the religious ceremonies held by the Indians at the Lake of Guatavita, they were wont to cast into its waters immense quantities of gold-dust, emeralds and other precious stones. It was also related that at these semi-annual festivals the Caciques and the principal chiefs, bearing valuable gifts of gold-dust and emeralds, were paddled out in canoes (or on rafts) to the exact middle of the lake, this point being determined by the intersection of two ropes stretching from four temples erected at four equidistant points on its banks. Arrived at this spot the offerings were cast into the lake, and the Cacique of Guatavita, whose naked body had been coated with an adhesive clay, over which gold-dust was sprinkled in profusion, sprang into the water, and after washing off the gold-dust, swam to the shore. This resplendent living golden figure strongly appealed to the Spaniards’ imagination, and the name they bestowed upon the Cacique, El Dorado (“The Golden,” or “Gilded”), is used to our day as a designation of a region or a spot exceptionally rich in gold. At the moment the “Golden Cacique” made his plunge into the lake, the assembled people scattered along its banks turned their backs toward the water, shouted loudly, and threw their propitiatory offerings over their shoulders into the lake.

Attempts have often been made to secure the treasures by drawing off the waters of the lake, but only with very partial success so far. The first serious effort is said to have been made by Antonio de Sepulveda, a merchant of Santa Fé, in United States of Colombia, who obtained a Spanish concession. In or about 1823 we have record of another unsuccessful venture on the part of José Ignacio Paris, in an account of Colombia written in 1824 by Captain Charles Stuart Cochrane, of the Royal Navy, who aided Paris in his efforts. The report that at the time of the Spanish Conquest, the Cacique of Guatavita caused gold-dust constituting the burdens of fifty men to be cast into the lake, greatly contributed to the zeal of the treasure-seekers in the vicinity. One of the early attempts at least resulted in the recovery of so much treasure that the Government’s 3 per cent. share is said to have amounted to $170,000.

In none of these essays, however, was the lake really and effectually drained off, and that of Paris in 1823 or 1824 failed in the same way, because of inadequate capital. He had succeeded in persuading sixteen shareholders to club together, each one contributing $500 to a common fund, but after not only this $8,000, but $12,000 more supplied by himself had been expended, there still remained 33 feet of water in the lake.

Recently an English company has recognized that the treasure must be sought at or even beneath the true bottom, as this existed at the time of the Spanish Conquest, and thus at levels considerably lower than those of the bottom at the present time. The project is, after 30 feet of the present bottom has been removed, to set up a steam shovel and sink down 40 or 50 feet in search of the gold-dust, golden ornaments and emeralds believed to exist here.

VIII Amulets: Ancient, Medieval, and Oriental

The present and the following chapter are devoted to a study of the talismanic virtues attributed to precious stones and gems, as distinguished from the curative powers with which they were credited. It is sometimes difficult to establish a hard and fast dividing line between the two classes, as everything that conduces to the happiness and well-being of man also affects his bodily health, but a distinction, correct in the main, may be made by regarding the talismanic use as covering all cases except those in which the stone was used where to-day some really medicinal substance would be administered.

A modern German writer on amulets has proposed to apply the term “emanism” (Emanismus) to the virtue existing or supposed to exist in amulets and talismans, and gives as his opinion that their virtue is neither a spiritual nor a personal one, but the operation of forces, the latter not being special, mysterious vital forces, but impersonal physical components and qualities, and that these exercise their influence by means of emanation. Wundt has held that the very earliest amulets were parts of the human body, and almost always such parts as were believed to be the bearers of the soul.[558]

Radiation or emanation of energy, without observable loss of substance, is a fact familiar enough to us to-day, but this phenomenon was not so generally accepted centuries ago. Still the lodestone always offered a striking example with which all writers on such subjects were acquainted. A stranger argument in support of the truth of this property was adduced by the seventeenth century physician, Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), who writes:[559]

If amulets do work by emanation from their bodies upon those parts whereunto they are appended and are not yet observed to abate their weight; if they produce visible and reall effects by imponderous and invisible emissions, it may be unjust to deny all efficacy to gold, in the non-emission of weight or deperdition of any ponderous articles.

While the learned doctor does not expressly state his belief in these “imponderous and invisible emissions” from amulets, he certainly does not attempt to deny their existence.

The Bolivian natives believe that the so-called mountain-sickness, the affection from which some travellers suffer at high altitudes, probably originates in subtle emanations from certain mineral veins. A confirmation of the fact that such a belief exists, though not of the truth of the theory, is found in the native name for this illness, _veta_, which signifies at once “mountain-sickness” and a vein or lode. The fact that at the pass of Livichuco, on the trail from Challapata to Sucre, there are considerable deposits of antimony, is regarded as substantiating this strange fancy.[560]

Among the Babylonians one of the most dreaded of the malign spiritual powers was the terrible female demon Labastu, and a long series of amulets are recommended, one or more of which should be worn to ward off her pernicious influence. For some of these amulets precious stones were used, and the effect of color, probably a determining circumstance in the selection of the particular stone, was to be strengthened by the color of the wrapping about the stone and of the cord by means of which it was to be hung from the neck, or attached to the right or left hand or foot, or to other parts of the body. As this dreadful spirit was chiefly feared as the inducer of disease, the location of the amulet was perhaps in some cases determined by the presence of local pain or disorder; in this case it would be expected to act as a cure of disease rather than a mere preventive. The following passages refer to such stone amulets:[561]

[Illustration:

EYE AGATES

Used as charms against the Evil Eye. East Indian. ]

Thou shalt wrap up a _shubu_-stone in white wool, and hang it on a white woollen cord, with four eye-stones (_enâti_) and four parê, and bind it to thy right hand.

A black _ka_-stone shalt thou enwrap in black wool, hang it on a black woollen cord, provide it with three eye-stones and three _parê_, and bind it to thy left hand.

Thou shalt wrap a white _ka_-stone in red wool, hang it on a red woollen cord, with four eye-stones and four _parê_, and bind it to the right foot.

An _appu_-stone shalt thou wrap up in blue wool, hang it on a blue woollen cord, furnish it with three eye-stones and three _parê_, and bind it to the left foot.

Seven eye-stones and seven _parê_ shalt thou string on a black cord.

The _enâti_ (eye-stones) here mentioned were most probably eye-agates similar to those still prized in the Mesapotamian region for their supposed magical virtues, and more especially for protection against the Evil Eye. There is, indeed, a bare possibility that some form of the cat’s-eye (known by that name to the Arabs) or one of the star-stones may occasionally be signified by this Assyrian name. The word _parê_, as it is not preceded by the determinative character signifying stone, may refer to some other material.

An immediate association of an animal eye with a turquoise, an example of the sympathetic magic to which we have frequently alluded, comes from Persia. During the celebration of the imposing ceremonies attending the great annual assemblage of pilgrims at the shrine of Mecca, it is customary to slaughter an immense number of sheep, and certain of the Persian pilgrims will secure possession of some of the eyes of their sacrificial victims, and will embed turquoises in them, firmly believing that in this way they have composed an infallible amulet against the Evil Eye.[562]

A Persian manuscript of a work entitled “Nozhat Namah Ellaiy,” written in the eleventh century by Schem Eddin, the transcription being dated 1304, asserts that the turquoise (piruzeh), though lacking in brilliancy, was esteemed to be a stone of good omen, and one that would bring good luck, since this was indicated by its name, signifying in Persian, “the Victorious.”[563]

One of the Egyptian tales from the time of the early dynasties shows the value placed upon the turquoise in Egypt at that time. This recital occurs in Baufra’s Tale. The reigning Pharaoh, to relieve a fit of mental depression, took a pleasure trip on the palace lake in a boat rowed by twenty beautiful and richly attired maidens. While bending over her oar, one of the maidens let fall into the water from her hair-adornment a fine turquoise (Egypt _mafkat_, thus rendered by Petrie) and was deeply chagrined at the loss. However, the court magician Zazamankh, who accompanied the sovereign, by his magic arts was able to provide a remedy, for on his reciting a charm of great power the turquoise rose up through the water so that it could be picked up from the surface and returned to its disconsolate owner.[564]

[Illustration:

TYPES OF EGYPTIAN SEALS AND SCARABS IN THE MURCH COLLECTION, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

Royal names: Fig. 1, XII Dynasty (2000–1788 B.C.), Usertasen III; Fig. 2, XIII Dyn. (1788–1680, B.C.), Sebekhetep III; Fig. 3, Hyksos Kings (1680–1580 B.C.), Aamu; Fig. 4, XVIII Dyn. (1580–1350 B.C.), Amenhetep I; Fig. 5, XIX Dyn. (1350–1205 B.C.), Rameses II; Fig. 8, XXII Dyn. (945–745 B.C.), Sheshonk I; Fig. 9, XXV Dyn. (712–663 B.C.), Taharka; Fig. 10, XXVI Dyn. (663–525 B.C.), Psamtek I; Private names; Fig. 11, Shemses, “Attendant”; Fig 12, Rera, “Superintendent of the Storehouse of Offerings”; Fig. 13, Ankh, “Attendant”; Figs. 14–16, scroll designs and ornamental groupings of hieroglyphs; Fig. 17, Goodluck amulet “May your name be established, may you have a son!” Figs. 18–24, animal-back seals. ]

The Egyptians believed that the different kinds of precious stones were endowed with certain special talismanic properties, and these stones were combined in their necklaces in a way supposed to afford protection from all manner of malign influences. The beads were of various forms, sometimes round or oval, and at others, rectangular or oblong; besides the stones in general use, such as the emerald, carnelian, agate, lapis lazuli, amethyst, rock-crystal, beryl, jasper and garnet, beads of gold, silver, glass, faience, and even of clay and straw, were employed. To complete the efficacy of the necklace, small images of the gods and of the sacred animals were added as pendants. Even on the mummies and mummy cases such ornaments are painted in imitation of necklaces or collars of precious stones, with flowers, etc., as pendants.[565]

One of the most artistic and beautiful specimens of ancient Egyptian goldsmiths’ work was recently sent by Dr. Flinders Petrie, on behalf of the Egyptian Research Account Society, to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It is adorned with amethysts set in gold, the stones with their symbolic settings constituting a charm of powerful amulets for the protection of the wearer, who is believed to have been the Princess Sat-Hathor-Ant, of the Twelfth Dynasty, the wife of the heir to the throne. Dr. Petrie pronounces this to be one of the finest ancient Egyptian necklaces he has ever seen.

This splendid ornament came from tomb No. 154 at Haragh. It measures 26.3 inches in length and is composed of 88 amethyst beads varying in length from nearly a quarter-inch to about four-tenths of an inch (0.6 cm. to 1 cm.) and in diameter from a little over a quarter-inch to over four-tenths of an inch (0.7 cm. to 1.1 cm.). The beads are slightly flattened and the borings were made from both ends, meeting accurately in the centre in the majority of cases. In spite of small surface scars, they are generally of very clear and even color.[566]

Special chapters from the great Egyptian collection of hymns and invocations known as the “Book of the Dead” were inscribed on certain

## particular stones, as in the following instances:

##