Seven days had sped since Sulamith had stepped into the palace of the
king. Seven days had she and the king taken joyance in love, yet could
not be sated therewith.
Solomon loved to adorn his beloved with precious things. “How beautiful
are thy little feet in sandals!” he would exclaim in rapture, and,
getting down on his knees before her, he would kiss each toe in turn,
and put upon them rings with stones so splendid and rare that their like
was not to be found even upon the ephod of a high-priest. Sulamith would
listen, entranced, whenever he discoursed upon the inner nature of
stones, their magic properties and secret significations.
“Here is anthrax, the sacred stone from the land of Ophir,” the king
would say. “It is hot and moist. Behold, it is red, like blood, like the
evening glow, like the blown flower of the pomegranate, like thick wine
from the vineyards of En-gedi, like thy lips, my Sulamith, in the
morning after a night of love. This is the stone of love, wrath, and
blood. Upon the hand of a man languishing in a fever or made drunk by
desire, it waxes warmer and glows with a red flame. Put it upon thy
hand, my beloved, and thou shalt see it enkindle. If it be brayed to a
powder and taken in water, it imparts a glow to the face, allays the
stomach, and maketh the soul to rejoice. He that weareth it attaineth
power over men. It is a curative for the heart, brain, and memory. But
it ought not be worn nigh children, for it doth arouse the passions of
love around it.
“Here is a transparent stone, the colour of copper verdigris. In the
land of the Æthiopians, where it is gotten, it is called Mgnadis-Phza.
It was given me by the father of my wife, Queen Astis,--by Shishak, the
Pharaoh of Ægypt, into whose hands it came through a captive king. Thou
seest,--it is not beautiful; yet is its value beyond computation, for
but four men on earth possess the stone Mgnadis-Phza. It possesses the
unusual property of attracting silver to it, just like a covetous man
that loveth the metal. I give it thee, my beloved, for that thou are
not covetous.
“Gaze upon these sapphires, Sulamith. Some of them resemble in colour
corn-flowers among wheat; others, an autumn sky; others still, the sea
in fine weather. This is the stone of virginity,--chill and pure. During
far and difficult voyages it is placed in the mouth to allay thirst. It
also cureth leprosy and all malignant growths. It bestoweth clarity to
thoughts. The priests of Jupiter in Rome wear it upon the index finger.
“The king of all stones is the stone Shamir. The Greeks name it
Adamas,--which signifieth, the invincible. It is the hardest of all
substances on earth and remains uninjured in the fiercest of fires.
It is the light of the sun, concentrated in the ground and cooled by time.
Admire it, Sulamith,--it playeth with all colours, but in itself
remaineth translucent, like a drop of water. It shineth in the darkness
of night; but loseth its radiance, even in the daytime, upon the hand of
a murderer. The Shamir is tied to the hand of a woman tortured in heavy
travail with child; and it is also put upon the left hand by warriors
setting out for battle. He that weareth the Shamir findeth favour with
kings and hath no dread of evil spirits. The Shamir driveth the mottled
colour off the face, purifieth the breath, giveth quiet slumber to
lunaticks, and induceth a sweat curative of near proximity to poison.
The Shamir stones are male and female; buried deep in the ground they
are capable of multiplying.
“The moonstone, pale and mild, like the shining of the moon,--it is
the stone of the Chaldæan and Babylonian magi. Before divination it is
placed under the tongue, and it imparts to them the gift of seeing the
future. It hath a strange tie with the moon, for during a new moon it
groweth chill and shineth more brightly. It is beneficial to woman
during that year when from a child she is becoming a woman.
“Wear thou this ring with a smaragd constantly, my beloved, for the
smaragd is the favourite stone of Solomon, King of Israel. It is green,
pure, gay, tender, like grass in the spring of the year, and when one
gazeth at it for long the heart waxeth radiant; if thou wilt look upon
it in the morning, all the day shall hold no hardship of thee. I shall
hang a smaragd over thy night couch, my comely one; let it drive evil
dreams away from thee; let it lull the beating of thy heart, and divert
black thoughts. Serpents and scorpions come not nigh him that weareth a
smaragd; but if a smaragd be held before the eyes of a serpent, water
shall flow from them, and continue flowing, till it go blind. Pounded
smaragd, together with camel’s milk, is given an empoisoned man, that
the poison may go off in transpiration; mixed with attar of roses,
smaragd cureth the bites of venomous reptiles; while ground with saffron
and applied to ailing eyes it eradicates night blindness. It also helps
in dysentery and the black cough that is incurable by any human means.”
The king also bestowed upon his beloved Lybian amethysts, whose colour
resembled early violets, that put forth in forests at the foot of the
Lybian mountains,--amethysts, possessed of the wondrous property of
curbing wind, mollifying wrath, preserving from intoxication, and
helping at the trapping of wild beasts; turquoise of Persepolis, that
bringeth happiness in love, endeth connubial quarrels, turneth away the
wrath of kings, and is propitious in the breaking and selling of horses;
and cat’s-eye,--that guardeth the property, reason, and health of its
possessor; and the pale beryllion, blue-green, like sea-water near
shore,--a good travelling companion for pilgrims and a remedy against
cataract and leprosy; and the vari-coloured agate: he that weareth it
hath no dread of the evil machinations of enemies, and avoideth
the danger of being crushed in an earthquake; and the apple-green,
turbidly-pellucid onychion,--its master’s guardian from fire and
madness; and iaspis, that maketh beasts to tremble; and the black
swallow-stone, that endoweth with eloquence; and the eagle-stone,
esteemed of pregnant women,--eagles put it in their nests when the time
comes for their young to break out of their shells; and zaberzate out
of Ophir, shining like little suns; and yellow-aureate chrysolite,--the
friend of merchants and thieves; and sardonyx, beloved of kings and
queens; and the crimson ligurion: it is found, as all know, in the
stomach of the lynx, whose sight is so keen that it can see through
walls,--and for that reason he that weareth a ligurion is also noted
for keen sight, and besides this it stoppeth bleeding of the nose, and
healeth all wounds, save wounds inflicted by stone or iron.
The king also put upon Sulamith’s neck carcanets of great price, of
pearls that had been dived for in the Persian Sea by his subjects; and
the pearls put on a living lustre and a soft colour from the warmth of
her body. And corals became redder upon her swarthy breast; and
turquoise came to life upon her fingers; and those baubles of yellow
amber which were brought from far northern seas, in gift to the king, by
the doughty ship-masters of Hiram, King of Tyre, emitted crackling
sparks in her hands.
With marigolds and lilies did Sulamith deck her couch, preparing it for
the night; and, reposing upon her breast, the king would say in the
joyousness of his heart:
“Thou are like to the king’s decked, masted boat in the Land of Ophir, O
my beloved; a light, golden boat that floats, swaying, upon the sacred
river, among white fragrant blossoms.”
* * * * *
Thus did his first--and last--love come to Solomon, the greatest of
kings and wisest of sages.
Many ages have passed since then. There have been kingdoms and kings,
and of them no trace has been left, as of a wind that has sped over a
desert. There have been prolonged, merciless wars, after which the names
of the commanders shone through the ages, like ensanguined stars; but
time has effaced even the very memory of them.
But the love of the lowly maiden of the vineyard and the great king
shall never pass away nor be forgotten,--for love is strong as death;
for every woman who loves is a queen; for love is beautiful.