insomnia and was thought to insure pleasant dreams. In spite of these
supposed advantages, Cardano asserts that while wearing this stone he
had many misfortunes which he could not trace to any fault or error
of his own. He, therefore, abandoned its use; although he states that
it made the wearer more prudent in his actions.[41] Indeed, Cardano
appears to have tested the talismanic worth of gems according to a plan
of his own,—namely, by wearing them in turn and noting the degree
of good or ill fortune he experienced. By this method he apparently
arrived at positive results based on actual experience; but he quite
failed to appreciate the fact that no real connection of any kind
existed between the stones and their supposed effects. In another
treatise this author takes a somewhat more favorable view of the agate,
and proclaims that all varieties render those who wear them “temperate,
continent, and cautious; therefore they are all useful for acquiring
riches.”[42]
According to the text accompanying a curious print published in Vienna
in 1709, the attractive qualities of the so-called coral-agate were to
be utilized in an air-ship, the invention of a Brazilian priest. Over
the head of the aviator, as he sat in the air-ship, there was a network
of iron to which large coral-agates were attached. These were expected
to help in drawing up the ship, when, through the heat of the sun’s
rays, the stones had acquired magnetic power. The main lifting force
was provided by powerful magnets enclosed in two metal spheres; how the
magnets themselves were to be raised is not explained.[43]
[Illustration: AN AIR-SHIP OF 1709.
In the network above the figure were to be set coral-agates, supposed
to possess such magnetic powers as to keep the craft aloft. From
Valentini, “Museum Museorum,” Pt. III, Franckfurt am Mayn, 1714, p.35.
Author’s library.]
About the middle of the past century, the demand for agate amulets was
so great in the Soudan that the extensive agate-cutting establishments
at Idar and Oberstein in Germany were almost exclusively busied with
filling orders for this trade. Brown or black agates having a white
ring in the centre were chiefly used for the fabrication of these
amulets, the white ring being regarded as a symbol of the eye. Hence
the amulets were supposed to neutralize the power of the Evil Eye, or
else to be emblematic of the watchfulness of a guardian spirit. The
demand for these amulets has fallen off greatly, but when it was at
its height single firms exported them to the value of 40,000 thalers
($30,000) annually, the total export amounting to hundreds of thousands
of thalers. Even at present a considerable trade in these objects is
still carried on. That there is a fashion in amulets is shown by the
fact that, while red, white, and green amulets are in demand on the
west coast of Africa, only white stones are favored for this use in
Northern Africa.
[Illustration: AFRICAN AGATE CHARMS.
Made of Brazilian agate at Oberstein, Germany, for African trade. Field
Museum, Chicago.]
Alexandrite
There are a few talismanic stones which have gained their repute in
our time, notably the alexandrite, a variety of chrysoberyl found in
Russia, in the emerald mines on the Takowaya, in the Ural region. The
discovery of this variety is stated to have been made in 1831 on the
day Alexander II (then heir-apparent) reached his majority, and it was
therefore named alexandrite, by Nordenskjöld, the mineralogist. The
stone as found in gem form rarely weighs over from one to three carats,
and is characterized by a marked pleochroism of a splendid green
changing to a beautiful columbine red. But in Ceylon much larger gems
are found, some few weighing 60 carats each, although rarely of more
than one or two carats. The color is of a darker and more bottle-like
green, and the change by night renders them darker and more granitized
than the Russian stones, which are extremely rare. As red and green
are the Russian national colors, the alexandrite has become a great
favorite with the Russians, and is looked upon as a stone of good omen
in that country. Such, however, is its beauty as a gem that its fame is
by no means confined to Russia, and it is eagerly sought in other lands
as well.
Amber
Amber was one of the first substances used by man for decoration,
and it was also employed at a very early period for amulets and for
medicinal purposes. More or less shapeless pieces of rough amber,
marked with circular depressions, have been found in Prussia,
Schleswig-Holstein, and Denmark, in deposits of the Stone Age. These
depressions are sometimes regularly disposed and at other times
irregularly, and seem intended to imitate similar depressions found in
large stones and rocks, often the work of man’s hand, but occasionally
the result of natural causes. In Hoernes’ opinion they marked the
resting place of the spirit or spirits believed to animate the stone,
and hence it is probable that the amber fragments were used as
talismans or amulets.[44]
For the ancient Greek poets, the grains of amber were the tears
annually shed over the death of their brother Phaëthon by the Heliades
after grief had metamorphosed them into poplars growing on the banks
of the Eridanus (the modern river Po).[45] In a lost tragedy of
Sophocles, he saw the origin of amber in the tears shed over the death
of Meleager by certain Indian birds. For Nicias it was the “juice” or
essence of the brilliant rays of the setting sun, congealed in the sea
and then cast up upon the shore. A more prosaic explanation likened
amber to resin, and regarded it as being an exudation from the trunks
of certain trees. Indeed, the poetic fancy we have just noted is the
same idea clothed in a metaphorical or mythological form. Another fancy
represented amber to be the solidified urine of the lynx, hence one of
its names, _lyncurius_.[46]
[Illustration: THE TREE THAT EXUDES AMBER.
From the “Hortus Sanitatis,” of Johannis de Cuba [Strassburg, Jean
Pryss, ca. 1483]; De lapidibus, cap. lxx. Author’s library.]
The brilliant and beautiful yellow of certain ambers and the fact
that this material was very easily worked served to make its use more
general, and it soon became a favorite object of trade and barter
between the peoples of the Baltic Coast and the more civilized peoples
to the south. Schliemann found considerable amber from the Baltic in
the graves of Mycenæ, and the frequent allusions to it in the works
of Latin authors of the first and succeeding centuries testify to its
popularity in the Roman world.
Probably the very earliest allusion in literature to the ornamental use
of amber appears in Homer’s Odyssey,[47] where we read:
Eurymachus
Received a golden necklace, richly wrought,
And set with amber beads, that glowed as if
With sunshine. To Eurydamas there came
A pair of ear-rings, each a triple gem,
Daintily fashioned and of exquisite grace.
Two servants bore them.
Amber ingeniously carved into animal forms has been discovered in
tumuli at Indersoen, Norway.[48] These curious objects were worn as
amulets, and the peculiar forms were supposed to enhance the power of
the material, giving it special virtues and rendering it of greater
value and efficacy.
Pieces of amber with singular natural markings were greatly esteemed,
especially when these markings suggested the initials of the name of
some prominent person. Thus, we are told that Friedrich Wilhelm I of
Prussia paid to a dealer a high price for a piece of amber on which
appeared his initials. The same dealer had another piece on which he
read the initials of Charles XII of Sweden. When he received the news
of this king’s death, he bitterly lamented having lost the opportunity
of selling him amber for a high price. But he was cleverly consoled by
Nathaniel Sendal, the relator of the story, who easily persuaded the
dealer that the markings could just as well signify the initials of
some other name. Sendal adduces this as a proof that the letters read
on such pieces of amber were as much the product of the observer’s
imagination as of the markings on the material.[49] Those who secured
amber so mysteriously marked by Nature’s hand probably felt that they
had obtained a talisman of great power, especially destined for their
use.
[Illustration: 1. Amber ornament, perforated, from Assyrian grave.
2. Amber ring ornament from Pompeii.
3. Large annular bead of amber from Mexico. Aztec work.
4. Amber wedding necklace. Eighteenth century. Baltic Provinces.
5. Amber beads. Worn by African natives.]
Amethyst
While the special and traditional virtue of the amethyst was the cure
of drunkenness, many other qualities were attributed to this stone in
the fifteenth century. For Leonardo,[50] it had the power to control
evil thoughts, to quicken the intelligence, and to render men shrewd
in business matters. An amethyst worn on the person had a sobering
effect, not only upon those who had partaken too freely of the cup that
intoxicates, but also upon those over-excited by the love-passion.
Lastly, it preserved soldiers from harm and gave them victory over
their enemies, and was of great assistance to hunters in the capture of
wild animals. The amethyst shared with many other stones the power to
preserve the wearer from contagion.[51]
A pretty legend in regard to the amethyst has been happily treated in
French verse. The god Bacchus, offended at some neglect that he had
suffered, was determined to avenge himself, and declared that the first
person he should meet, when he and his train passed along, should be
devoured by his tigers. Fate willed it that this luckless mortal
was a beautiful and pure maiden named Amethyst, who was on her way to
worship at the shrine of Diana. As the ferocious beasts sprang toward
her, she sought the protection of the goddess, and was saved from a
worse fate by being turned into a pure white stone. Recognizing the
miracle and repenting of his cruelty, Bacchus poured the juice of the
grape as a libation over the petrified body of the maiden, thus giving
to the stone the beautiful violet hue that so charms the beholder’s
eye.[52]
From the various descriptions of this stone given by ancient writers,
it appears that one of the varieties was probably the purple almandine
or Indian garnet, and it is not improbable that we have here the reason
for the name amethyst and for the supposed virtue of the stone in
preserving from drunkenness. For if water were poured into a vessel
made of a reddish stone, the liquid would appear like wine, and could
nevertheless be drunk with impunity.
Beryl
Arnoldus Saxo, writing about 1220, after reciting the virtues of
the beryl as given by Marbodus, after Evax and Isidorus, reports
in addition that the stone gave help against foes in battle or in
litigation; the wearer was rendered unconquerable and at the same
time amiable, while his intellect was quickened and he was cured of
laziness.[53] In the old German translation of Thomas de Cantimpré’s
“De Proprietatibus Rerum,” we read that the beryl reawakens the
love of married people (er hat auch die art daz er der elaut lieb
wiederpringt).[54]
Bloodstone
[Illustration: A PRACTICAL TEST OF THE VIRTUES OF THE BLOODSTONE TO
PREVENT NOSE-BLEED.
From the “Hortus Sanitatis” of Johannis de Cuba [Strassburg, Jean
Pryss, ca. 1483]; De lapidibus, cap. xc. Author’s library.]
The heliotrope or bloodstone was supposed to impart a reddish hue to
the water in which it was placed, so that when the rays of the sun
fell upon the water they gave forth red reflections. From this fancy
was developed the strange exaggeration that this stone had the power
to turn the sun itself a blood-red, and to cause thunder, lightning,
rain, and tempest. The old treatise of Damigeron relates this of the
bloodstone, adding that it announced future events by producing rain
and by “audible oracles.” Probably the conjurors, before proceeding
to use the stone for their incantations, watched the heavens and
waited until they noticed the signs of an approaching storm. They then
interpreted the sounds of the wind and thunder in various ways, so
as to give apt answers to the questions addressed to them touching
future events. It is well known that the sighing of the wind, and,
indeed, all those natural sounds which constitute the grand symphony of
Nature, were interpreted by prophets and seers into articulate speech.
Damigeron also declares that the bloodstone preserved the faculties and
bodily health of the wearer, brought him consideration and respect, and
guarded him from deception.[55]
In the Leyden papyrus the bloodstone is praised as an amulet in the
following extravagant terms:
The world has no greater thing; if any one have this with him he will
be given whatever he asks for; it also assuages the wrath of kings and
despots, and whatever the wearer says will be believed. Whoever bears
this stone, which is a gem, and pronounces the name engraved upon it,
will find all doors open, while bonds and stone walls will be rent
asunder.[56]
Carbuncle
The carbuncle was recommended as a heart stimulant; indeed, so powerful
was its action, that the wearers were rendered angry and passionate and
were even warned to be on their guard against attacks of apoplexy.[57]
The blood-red hue of the stone also suggested its use as a symbol of
the divine sacrifice of Christ on the cross. However, not only in
Christianity was this stone used to illustrate religious conceptions,
for the Koran affirms that the Fourth Heaven is composed of carbuncle.
In mythical fancies too this stone played its part, for dragon’s eyes
were said to be carbuncles.
Rumphius[58] states that in 1687 he was told by a chirurgeon that the
latter had seen in the possession of one of the rulers in the island of
Amboin a carbuncle said to have been brought by a serpent. The story
ran that this ruler, when a child, had been placed by his mother in a
hammock attached to two branches of a tree. While there a serpent crept
up to him and dropped a stone upon his body. In gratitude for this
gift the parents of the child fed and cared for the serpent. The stone
is described as having been of a warm yellow hue, verging on red; it
shone so brightly at night that a room could be illuminated by it. It
eventually passed into the possession of a King of Siam.
Carnelian
Talisman ist Karneol
Gläubigen bringt er Glück und Wohl;
Steht er gar auf Onyx’ Grunde,
Küss’ ihm mit geweihtem Munde!
Alles Übel treibt er fort,
Schützet dich und schützt den Ort;
Wenn das eingegrabene Wort
Allah’s Namen rein verkündet;
Dich zu Lieb’ und Tat entzündet;
Und besonders werden Frauen
Sich am Talisman erbauen![59]
Carnelian is a talisman,
It brings good luck to child and man;
If resting on an onyx ground,
A sacred kiss imprint when found.
It drives away all evil things;
To thee and thine protection brings.
The name of Allah, king of kings,
If graven on this stone, indeed,
Will move to love and doughty deed.
From such a gem a woman gains
Sweet hope and comfort in her pains.
The wearing of carnelians is recommended by the Lapidario of Alfonso
X[60] to those who have a weak voice or are timid in speech, for the
warm-colored stone will give them the courage they lack, so that they
will speak both boldly and well. This is in accord with the general
belief in the stimulating and animating effects produced by red stones.
On a carnelian is engraved in Arabic characters a prayer to keep away
evil and to deliver the wearer from all the tricks of the devil and
from the envious. The inscription reads in translation:
In the name of God the Just, the very Just!
I implore you, O God King of the World,
God of the World, deliver us from the devil
Who tries to do harm and evil to us through
Bad people, and from the evil of the envious.
Throughout all the East people are afraid of the envious. They believe
that if you envy a person for his health or his wealth or any good
thing he may have, he will lose it in a short time, and it is the devil
who incites the envy of some people against others. So it is supposed
that by wearing this stone, bearing this prayer against the envious,
their envy will cease to do you harm.
The popularity of the carnelian as a talismanic stone among Mohammedan
peoples is said to be due to the fact that the Prophet himself wore, on
the little finger of his right hand, a silver ring set with a carnelian
engraved for use as a seal. One of the most famous of the imâms, Jafar,
lent the weight of his authority to the belief in the virtue of the
carnelian, for he declared that all the desires of any man who wore
this stone would be gratified. Hence in Persia the name of one of the
twelve imâms, comprising Ali and his successors, is frequently engraved
on this stone.[61]
[Illustration: CARNELIAN SEAL, WORN BY NAPOLEON I, NAPOLEON III, AND
THE PRINCE IMPERIAL.
This most interesting seal is described by the Rev. C. W. King, the
writer on Antique Gems. It is carnelian, octagonal-shaped, and upon it
is engraved the legend: “The slave Abraham relying upon the Merciful
(God).” Napoleon III wore it on his watch-chain. He said about it: “The
First Consul picked it up with his own hands during the campaign in
Egypt and always carried it about him, as his nephew did later.” The
Prince Imperial received it with the following message: “As regards
my son, I desire that he will keep, as a talisman, the Seal which I
used to wear attached to my watch.” He carried the seal upon a string
fastened about his neck in obedience to the injunction of his father.
At the time of his lamentable death it must have been carried off in
South Africa by the Zulus, when they stripped his body, and it has
never been recovered.]
An Armenian writer of the seventeenth century reports that in India the
_lâl_ or balas-ruby, if powdered and taken in a potion was believed
to banish all dark forebodings and to excite joyous emotions. To the
carnelian was attributed a virtue somewhat analogous to that ascribed
to the turquoise, as anyone wearing a carnelian was proof against
injury from falling houses or walls; the writer emphasizes this by
stating that “no man who wore a carnelian was ever found in a collapsed
house or beneath a fallen wall.”[62]
Chalcedony
[Illustration: CHALCEDONY VOTIVE CHARM FROM MEXICO.
Aztec. Field Museum, Chicago.]
[Illustration: CURIOUS ALTAR OF POWALAWA INDIANS OF ARIZONA.
The ceremonial objects are grouped around a crystal of rock-crystal in
the centre. (See page 254.)]
An ingenious though far-fetched explanation of the power attributed
to chalcedony of driving away phantoms and visions of the night is
supplied by Gonelli, writing in 1702. For him the source of this
asserted power was to be found in what has been erroneously termed the
alkaline quality of the stone. This dissipated the evil humors of the
eye, thus removing the diseased condition of that organ which caused
the apparitions to be seen.[63] However absurd this explanation may
be, it nevertheless shows that the author put little faith in visible
ghosts, and rightly enough recognized the purely subjective character
of such phenomena.
Chrysoberyl
The cat’s-eye variety of chrysoberyl, or precious cat’s-eye, is used
by the natives of Ceylon as a charm against evil spirits. As a proof
of the high value set upon the gem in India, De Boot states that a
cat’s-eye estimated as worth ninety gold pieces in Lusitania was sold
for six hundred in India.[64] Some of the finest specimens come from
Ceylon.
Chrysolite
The “Serpent Isle,” in the Red Sea, was stated by Agatharcides to be
the source whence came the topaz (chrysolite); here, by the mandate
of the Egyptian kings, the inhabitants collected specimens of this
stone and delivered them to the gem-cutters for polishing.[65] These
simple details are elaborated by Diodorus Siculus into the legend that
the island was guarded by jealous watchers who had orders to put to
death any unauthorized persons who approached it. Even those who had
the right to seek the gem could not see the chrysolite in daytime;
only after nightfall was it revealed by its radiance; the seekers then
marked well the spot and were able to find the stone on the following
day.[66]
From this Egyptian source, and possibly from others exploited by the
Egyptians, have come the finest chrysolites (peridots, or olivines),
the most magnificent examples of this gem. These found their way into
the cathedral treasures of Europe, evidently by loot or trade at the
period of the Crusades, and are generally called emeralds. Those most
notable are in the Treasury of the Three Magi, in the great “Dom,” or
Cathedral at Cologne. Some of these gems are nearly two inches long.
In our own land beautiful specimens can be seen in the Morgan
collection at the American Museum of Natural History and in the
Higinbotham Hall in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago,
Illinois.
Pliny quotes from Juba the tradition that the topaz (chrysolite)
derived its name from the Island of Topazos, in the Red Sea, the first
specimen having been brought thence by the procurator Philemon, to
Berenice, mother of Ptolemy II, Philadelphus. This monarch is said to
have had a statue of his wife Arsinoë made from the stone.[67] If there
be any foundation for this latter statement, the precious gift sent by
Philemon must have been a mass of fluorspar, or some similar material.
More than three hundred years after Pliny’s time, Epiphanius, evidently
repeating another version of this tradition, states that the “topaz”
was set in the diadem of the “Theban queen.”
Chrysolite (olivine, peridot), to exert its full power, required to be
set in gold; worn in this way it dispelled the vague terrors of the
night. If, however, it were to be used as a protection from the wiles
of evil spirits, the stone had to be pierced and strung on the hair of
an ass and then attached to the left arm.[68] The belief in the virtue
of the chrysolite to dissolve enchantments and to put evil spirits to
flight was probably due to the association of the stone with the sun,
before whose life-giving rays darkness and all the powers of darkness
were driven away.
Chrysoprase
Wonderful things are told of the virtue of the chrysoprase, for Volmar
states that, if a thief sentenced to be hanged or beheaded should
place this stone in his mouth, he would immediately escape from his
executioners.[69] Although we are not informed in what way this
fortunate result was attained, it seems likely that the stone was
believed to make the thief invisible, and thus possessed a virtue often
attributed to the opal.
A strange story regarding a magic stone reputed to have been worn by
Alexander the Great is related by Albertus Magnus. According to this
recital, Alexander, in his battles, wore a “prase” in his girdle. On
his return from his Indian campaign, wishing one day to bathe in the
Euphrates, he laid aside his girdle, and a serpent bit off the stone
and then dropped it into the river.[70] Even Albertus, who is far from
critical, admits that the story seems like a fable, and it probably
belongs to a comparatively late period. As the term “prase” is used
very loosely by early writers, this “victory stone” may have been an
emerald or possibly jade.
Coral
The appreciation of coral as an ornament, or for amulets, seems to
presuppose a certain development of civilization, for savage tribes
greatly prefer glass ornaments. Many attempts have been made to
introduce coral beads instead of glass beads among such tribes, but
with no success, as the cheaper, but brighter, glass always commands a
higher price.[71]
To still tempests and traverse broad rivers in safety was the privilege
of one who bore either red or white coral with him. That this also
stanched the flow of blood from a wound, cured madness, and gave
wisdom, was said to have been experimentally proved.[72]
[Illustration: KABYLE JEWELRY.
Of Mediterranean coral and pearls. Field Museum, Chicago.]