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:
Chapter XXVI of the Book of the Dead to be inscribed on, or recited
over, a figure in lapis lazuli.[567]
Chapter whereby the Heart is given to a person in the Netherworld.
He saith: Heart mine to me, in the place of Hearts! Whole Heart mine
to me, in the place of Whole Hearts!
Let me have my Heart that it may rest within me; but I shall feed upon
the food of Osiris, on the eastern side of the mead of amaranthine
flowers.
Be mine a bark for descending the stream and another for ascending.
I go down into the bark where thou art.
Be there given to me my mouth wherewith to speak, and my feet for
walking; and let me have my arms wherewith to overthrow my
adversaries.
Let two hands from the Earth open my mouth: Let Seb, the Erpâ of the
gods, part my two jaws; let him open my two eyes which are closed, and
give motion to my two hands which are powerless; and let Anubis give
vigor to my legs that I may raise myself upon them.
And may Sechit the divine one lift me up, so that I may arise in
Heaven and issue my behest in Memphis.
I am in possession of my Heart, I am in possession of my Whole Heart,
I am in possession of my arms and I have possession of my legs.
[I do whatsoever my Genius willeth, and my Soul is not bound to my
body at the gates of Amenta.]
Chapter XXVII of the Book of the Dead to be inscribed on, or recited
over, a figure in green feldspar.[568]
Chapter whereby the Heart of a person is not taken from him in the
Netherworld.
O ye gods who seize upon Hearts, and who pluck out the Whole Heart;
and whose hands fashion anew the Heart of a person according to what
he hath done; lo now, let that be forgiven to him by you.
Hail to you, O ye Lords of Everlasting Time and Eternity!
Let not my Heart be torn from me by your fingers.
Let not my Heart be fashioned anew according to all the evil things
said against me.
For this Heart of mine is the Heart of the god of mighty names
[Thoth], of the great god whose words are in his members, and who
giveth free course to his Heart which is within him.
And most keen of insight is his heart among the gods. Ho to me! Heart
of mine: I am in possession of thee, I am thy master, and thou art by
me; fall not away from me; I am the dictator to whom thou shalt obey
in the Netherworld.
Were there sufficient evidence as to the use of jade by the ancient
Egyptians, we might be justified in finding an allusion to this
substance in the 160th chapter of the Book of the Dead. This chapter was
to be inscribed upon a small column made of a green stone (Renouf
translates “green feldspar”), as appears in the text, which reads, in
part, as follows:
I am the column of green feldspar which cannot be crushed, and which
is raised by the hand of Thoth.
Injury is an abomination for it. If it is safe, I am safe; if it is
not injured, I am not injured; if it receives no cut, I receive no
cut.
Said by Thoth: arise, come in peace, lord of Heliopolis, lord who
resides at Pu.
The text is accompanied by a vignette in which Thoth is represented
bringing the column enclosed in a box or casket. This is one of the
forms of the _neshem_-stone, a name used in Egyptian as widely and
vaguely as was _smaragdus_ in Latin. One thing is, however, quite
evident, the material designated here must have been of exceptional
hardness and toughness, for the special virtue of the column-amulet was
to make the body as hard and indestructible as itself. Incidentally we
may recall that the hermetic work of Thoth, named by the later Greeks
Trismegistos, the Thrice Mighty One, which was said to have been
unearthed in a tomb, was inscribed upon _smaragdus_.
The larger part of the amulets used in ancient Egypt represented some
living creature. The most usual type is the bull’s head, which was cut
from carnelian, hematite, amazon stone, lapis lazuli, or quartz.
Prehistoric Egyptian amulets representing the fly have been found; these
were of slate, lapis lazuli and serpentine. In historic times gold was
employed as the material. Other types occurring in prehistoric times are
the hawk, of quartz or limestone; the serpent, of lapis lazuli or
limestone; the crocodile and the frog. Carnelian was freely used as the
material for amulets in the earlier historic times, among the prevailing
forms were the hand, the fist, and the eye; amulets figuring the lion,
the jackal-head, the frog, and the bee, also appear. Silver or electrum
was substituted for carnelian in the Middle Kingdom. At a later period
amulets were used less and less frequently.[569]
The mysterious virtues of the scarab are not yet forgotten in the East,
in Syria at least, for we are told that this beetle is an object of much
veneration among the Syrian peasants as an amulet. One use of it in this
way is to enclose a specimen in a box and lay this upon the breast of a
babe in its cradle as a sure protection against the greatly-dreaded Evil
Eye. There is also a superstition in this region that if a “scarab” is
found lying helplessly on its back, anyone who charitably relieves it of
its embarrassment by setting it on its feet, will be relieved of the
guilt of a number of sins.[570]
[Illustration:
By courtesy of Herbert J. Ward and John Murray, Publisher.
COLOSSAL SCARAB IN BLACK GRANITE, BRITISH MUSEUM
Length 60 in., by 33 in. high. From “The Sacred Beetle” by John Ward,
F.S.A.
]
It is difficult to see any other origin for the scaraboid, or imperfect
scarab form, than that afforded by the Egyptian scarabs, some of which
date back to about 4000 B.C. Whether we can literally say that the
scaraboid was introduced into Babylon by the Egyptians may be open to
question, as the form itself appears to have been evolved by Etruscans
and Greeks. Unquestionably the scaraboid was much more easily shaped
than the scarab proper, and for those traders who wished large supplies
for commercial purposes at a low cost, this was by no means a negligible
quality.
The evolution of the ring from the cylindrical seal is of course purely
a matter of conjecture. Here, as is often the case in a chain or series
of fossil remains, we have a succession of types which _may_ be
connected with one another genetically, but which _must_ not be so
connected. That is to say, we cannot prove the affirmative and can only
point to a probability.
Many cut and engraved stones, some of which had evidently been used as
talismans, have been washed up on the shore at Alexandria, Egypt. Not
all of these are completed, some being only half worked, as though the
engraver had become dissatisfied with his design, or had found a flaw in
the material, or that they had been lost from boats or ships. It has
been conjectured that these half-completed gems were the work of
household jewellers employed in the palaces of Alexandria.[571] In
Mas’ûdi’s “Meadows of Gold” we read that in his time, in the tenth
century A.D., there was what he terms “a fishery for precious stones” on
the sea-coast near Alexandria, Egypt. To account for this he relates two
bits of legend. One of them represents these fragments of precious
stones as having originally adorned the richly decorated vases and
vessels of Alexander the Great, which were broken up and cast into the
sea by Alexander’s mother after his death. The other tale was to the
effect that Alexander himself had gathered together a mass of jewels and
ordered them to be thrown into the sea near the Pharos, so that its
neighborhood should never be deserted; for, Mas’ûdi remarks, wherever
precious stones are to be found, whether in mines or in the depths of
the sea, men are sure to assemble to seek for them.[572]
The prophet Isaiah in his third chapter, where he scores the wantonness
and vanity of the Daughters of Zion (vs. 16–26), enumerates in detail
the various adornments of a Hebrew _mondaine_ toward the end of the
eighth century before Christ. Among the jewels and trinkets, amulets
(_lehâshîm_; v. 20) are expressly mentioned, and also “crescents,” these
being probably of gold. While it is not possible to determine the
material of the amulets, the fact that they are named together with rich
ornaments of various kinds, rings, nose-jewels, bracelets, anklets,
etc., indicates that they were of precious material, and were possibly
engraved precious stones or seals of some sort.[573] In the Song of
Songs, which can scarcely be assigned to a later date than Isaiah, and
may have been written earlier, the seal is named in what is perhaps the
most beautiful passage of this unique poem, Chapter VII, verse 6:
Set me as a seal upon thine heart;
as a seal upon thine arm.
For love is strong as death;
passion is unyielding as Hades,
The flashes thereof are flashes of fire;
an all-consuming flame.
The golden “crescents” were used as amulets by the Midianites for
suspension on the necks of their camels, at the period of the Hebrew
conquest of Canaan, as appears from the eighth chapter of Judges (v.
21).
The burying in a grave of valuable gems and ornaments worn by the
deceased during life must have been originally due to a belief that they
served as talismans to guard the remains from the malign influence of
evil spirits, or perhaps even to afford protection and aid, by some
strange occult power, to the soul of the departed in the under or upper
world whither it had journeyed. In the New World, among the more highly
civilized and wealthy Indian tribes of the south, this custom was very
general, and rich spoils have been taken from their graves by the
unsentimental settlers from Europe. In the Old World also this usage was
quite common; Egyptian tombs have afforded jewels of gold and gems worth
large sums intrinsically, apart from their archæological value, and only
to note one among many instances, we may recall the treasures unearthed
by the indefatigable Schliemann in the old Greek tombs of Mycenæ.
However, of all these finds none surpasses in interest that made by M.
Henry de Morgan near Susa on February 10, 1901, when there was brought
to light, from a depth of some six metres below the surface, a bronze
sarcophagus containing the skeleton of a woman. Heaped upon the breast
of the skeleton and strewn about the head and neck was a mass of
finely-wrought and artistic gems and jewels, including several detached
amulets. From coins found in the burial and also from the general
character of these relics, M. de Morgan believes that the interment must
have been made at some date between 350 and 330 B.C., just before
Alexander’s invasion of Persia.[574]
The jewels embrace a beautiful gold torque weighing 385 grams (something
over one pound Troy). The hoop terminates in two lions’ heads having
cheeks of turquoise, while on the muzzle is a lapis lazuli flanked by
two turquoises; on the top of the head is a plate of mother-of-pearl.
Bracelets similar in design and decoration to the torque go to complete
the parure. Of even greater interest than the gold torque was a
three-row pearl necklace, 238 of the pearls being still more or less
well preserved; originally there must have been from 400 to 500 of them.
Still another valuable necklace consists of 400 beads of precious or
ornamental stone material and 400 gold beads. The stones represented are
turquoise, lapis lazuli, emerald, agate, various jaspers, red and blond
carnelian, feldspar, jade (?), hyaline and milky quartz, amethyst of a
pale violet hue, hematite, several marbles and breccia. A fourth
necklace had a row of beads and pendants incrusted with carnelian, lapis
lazuli and turquoise; here the sharp contrast of the bright red
carnelian disturbs the harmonious effect produced by the combination of
the dark blue lapis lazuli and the light blue turquoise.
The detached amulets are of various forms, one figuring a sphinx with a
ram’s head; this was in white paste with green enamel. Another, of gold,
was rudely fashioned in the form of a lion or a cat, and there was also
a dove of lapis lazuli, poorly executed, the amulets (mainly of Egyptian
type) being of very inferior workmanship as compared with the jewels.
Still they serve to confirm the belief that this heaping up in the tomb
of all the dearest treasures cherished in life, was intended to exert a
post-mortem influence upon the after-life of the dead woman.
That some of the Hebrew patriots who fought under the banner of Judas
Maccabæus toward the middle of the second century B.C. were tinged with
the prevailing superstition regarding amulets, appears in a passage of
the second book of Maccabees, where it is stated that when Judas
collected together for burial the bodies of those patriots who had
fallen in battle before Odolla, they were found to have worn beneath
their tunics certain idolatrous amulets, a custom strictly forbidden to
the Jews. Their death was then looked upon as a signal instance of
divine justice, which “had made hidden things manifest,” and Judas
exhorted the people to take this lesson to heart and guard themselves
from sin.
The wealth of books on magic and divination produced in the ancient city
of Ephesus, in Asia Minor, was so great that the designation “Ephesian
writings” was quite generally given to writings of this kind, more
especially to denote short texts that could be worn as amulets or
charms. We read in the Acts of the Apostles (xix, 19) that after hearing
the fervent discourses of St. Paul, in which he eloquently attacked the
superstitions of the Ephesians, many of those who owned books of this
description were so deeply moved that they burned up all such books in
their possession, to the value of 50,000 pieces of silver, that is to
say $9000, equivalent perhaps to $90,000, if we make due allowance for
the greater purchasing power of money nearly two thousand years ago. The
small literary value of the writings of this sort that have been
preserved for us indicates that the loss to posterity by this auto-da-fé
was not very considerable, and yet many queer superstitions and strange
usages of which we now lack information must have been noted in these
magic rolls and sheets.
The following lines may serve to show how highly the jasper was esteemed
in ancient times, this designation covering jade as well:[575]
Auro, quid melius? Jaspis. Quid Jaspite? Virtus. Quid virtute? Deus.
Quid deitate? Nihil.
What is better than Gold? Jasper.
What is better than Jasper? Virtue.
What is better than Virtue? GOD.
What is better than the deity? Nothing.
The first mention of the famous charm Abracadabra, which so often
appears engraved on Gnostic gems, occurs in a Latin medical poem written
by Serenus Sammonicus who lived in the third century and is said to have
bequeathed his library consisting of sixty-two thousand volumes to the
Emperor Gordian the Younger. The poem recommends this mystic word, or
name, as a sovereign remedy for the “demitertian” fever, if it were
written on a piece of paper and suspended by a linen thread from the
neck of the patient. To have its full efficacy the word should be
written as many times as there are letters in it, but taking away one
letter each time, so that the inscription assumed the form of an
inverted cone.[576]
It is interesting to note that De Foe, writing in the seventeenth
century of the Great Plague in London (1665), alludes to this strange
talisman as still in use.[577] Treating of the curious prophylactics
employed at that time, he reproaches those who employed such methods,
and acted “as if the plague was not the hand of God, but a kind of
possession of an evil spirit, and that it was to be kept off with
crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers tied up with so many knots, and
certain words or figures, as particularly the word Abracadabra formed in
triangle or pyramid, thus:
A B R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A”
A curious charm which was extensively used as an amulet in medieval
times consists of five Latin words so arranged that they can be read
backwards or forwards and also upwards or downwards. The disposition of
the letters is as follows:
s a t o r
a r e p o
t e n e t
o p e r a
r o t a s
This charm has been preserved for us in Greek and Coptic as well as in
Roman characters, and examples of it have been found cut in a marble
slab above the chapel of St. Laurent at Rochemaur (Ardèche), France, and
also in the plaster wall of an old Roman house at Cirncester,
Gloucestershire, England. In a Greek manuscript in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, in Paris,[578] the Latin words are transliterated and
translated as follows:
σάτορ, the sower
ἀρεπο, the plough
τένετ, holds
ὀπερα, works
ρότας, wheels
Another and more ingenious explanation of this puzzle has, however, been
given.[579] Beginning with the last word “rotas,” and taking the other
words in their order, it is proposed to read as follows: “The
plough-wheels (rotas), the laborer (opera), holds (tenet), creep after
him (arepo), I, the sower (sator).” The chief defect in this version
appears to be the assumption that “opera” can be rendered “laborer,” an
interpretation which is, at best, supported by a doubtful use of the
word in that sense by Horace. This charm appears in an Italian
manuscript of the fourteenth century,[580] where it is recommended to be
used for the assurance of a speedy delivery.
Touching the wonderful and mystic power attributed to the seven vowels
of the Greek alphabet by the Gnostics, C. W. King cites the following
words from the Pistis Sophia of Valentinus:[581]
Nothing therefore is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek
after, saving only the mystery of the Seven Vowels and their forty and
nine Powers, and the Numbers thereof. And no name is more excellent
than all these [Vowels], a Name wherein be contained all Names and all
Lights and all Powers.
The last sentence probably refers to the arrangement of these vowels
often met with in inscribed Gnostic talismans, the so-called Abraxas
gems. Here we often find them in the following order Ι Ε Η Θ Ο Υ Α, and
the sound of these vowels really suggests the conventional pronunciation
of the Hebrew name Jehovah (yehowah). The words quoted from the Pistis
Sophia are placed in the mouth of Jesus, and King calls attention to the
fact that in Greek the same word is used for voice and vowel (φώνη). He
therefore believes that the passage in Revelations (x, 3–4): “The seven
thunders uttered their voices,” signifies that the sound of the seven
vowels “echoed through the vault of heaven, and composed that mystic
utterance which the sainted seer was forbidden to reveal unto mortals.”
[Illustration:
A MEDIEVAL SPELL
From a XIV century Italian MS. in the author’s library. The efficacy
of the spell is to be insured by reciting the accompanying
invocation thrice.
]
Certain talismans were supposed to afford protection not only to
individuals but even to entire cities. Of this class were two talismans
described by Gregory of Tours. He relates that Paris had enjoyed from
ancient times a surprising immunity from serpents and rats, as well as
from fires. However, in clearing out the channel beneath a bridge across
the Seine, the workmen found, embedded in the mud, two brazen images,
one of a serpent and the other of a rat; after these had been removed
from their resting place, serpents and rats appeared, and conflagrations
became common.[582]
Of the many memorials of the Age of Charlemagne preserved in the
Cathedral Treasury at Aachen, that popularly known as the Talisman of
Charlemagne always exerted a peculiar fascination over the minds of
those visiting the shrine, both because of its sacred character and on
account of the mystic power ascribed to it.
The “Talisman” is composed of two large sapphires, cut _en cabochon_,
one being of oval form and the other square, these constituting
respectively the front and back of the relic; enclosed between them is a
cross made from wood of the Holy Cross said to have been found in
Palestine by St. Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. This is only
visible when looking through the oval sapphire set in front of the
medallion. The two sapphires are joined and framed by a band studded
with precious stones, and various other gems are set above and below
them. The oval sapphire is of a pale blue, and is furnished with a gold
openwork bordering. At the top of the medallion, in a square space is
set a lozenge-shaped garnet, and around the oval sapphire forming the
front are placed successively, (1) an emerald, (2) a pearl, (3) a
garnet, (4) a pearl, (5) an emerald, (6) a pearl, (7) a garnet, (8) a
pearl, (9) an emerald, (10) a pearl, (11) a garnet, (12) a pearl, (13)
an emerald, (14) a pearl, (15) a garnet, (16) a pearl.
The square sapphire at the back of the medallion is of poor quality and
imperfect color; about it are sixteen settings, containing respectively,
(1) (lacking), (2) a pearl, (3) a garnet, (4) a pearl, (5) an emerald,
(6) a pearl, (7) a garnet, (8) a pearl, (9) an emerald, (10) a pearl,
(11) a garnet, (12) a pearl, (13) an emerald, (14) a pearl, (15) a
garnet, (16) a pearl.
On the band are set the following stones: (1) a pearl, (2) a sapphire,
(3) a pearl, (4) an amethyst, (5) a pearl, (6) a sapphire, (7) a pearl,
(8) an amethyst, (9) a pearl, (10) an almost white sapphire, (11) a
pearl, (12) an amethyst, (13) a pearl, (14) a white sapphire.
In the summer of 1804, Empress Josephine went to Aix-la-Chapelle
(Aachen) to take the waters there, and during her stay, on August 1, she
visited the tomb of Charlemagne in the Cathedral. We are told that
Napoleon, who joined Josephine at Aix-le-Chapelle on September 3, had
already _authorized_ the Cathedral chapter to part with certain of the
relics and bestow them upon Josephine at the time of her visit to the
tomb. This authorization, of course, was only a polite equivalent for a
command, and was duly carried out, the most prized object secured by
Josephine being precisely this famed talisman. It eventually came into
the hands of Hortense, Josephine’s daughter, the mother of Napoleon III,
and was inherited by him. It is said to be now in a private collection
in Paris.[583] Empress Eugénie is stated to have worn it at the time of
the birth of the Prince Imperial, and to have further shown her belief
in the mystic, or magic, virtues of the talisman by sending it several
years later to Biarritz, that it might be kept for a time in the
sick-room of M. Bacciochi, when he was prostrated by illness in that
city.[584]