tenth century, the original manuscript of which was owned by an
Anglo-Saxon leech named Bald, as testified to by an entry on the
title-leaf, gives the agate a prominent place as a talismanic and
curative agent. More especially is its power over the demon-world
emphasized. Indeed it is asserted to serve as a sort of diagnostic of
demoniacal possession, the words being: “The man who hath in him
secretly the loathly fiend, if he taketh in liquid any portion of the
shavings of this stone, then soon is exhibited manifestly in him that
which before secretly lay hid.” Less unfamiliar to those acquainted with
the early literature on the subject are the statements that the wearers
of agates were guarded against danger from lightning, and from venom.
The liquid “extract of agate,” taken internally, also produced smooth
skin and rendered the partaker immune from the bites of snakes.[585]
An extremely strange type of amulets found occasionally in Gallic
sepulchres are disks made from human skulls. It appears to be a
well-ascertained fact that the operation of trephining was performed at
this early date, almost if not quite exclusively in the case of infants,
and it is believed principally for the cure of epilepsy. If the child
survived the operation its skull was thought to have acquired a certain
magic power. This idea had its rise in the belief that epilepsy was the
result of an indwelling evil spirit, so that if the disease disappeared
as a result or sequence of the operation, this evil spirit was believed
to have made his way out through the aperture. On the eventual death of
one whose skull had been successfully trephined, disks were sometimes
cut just on the edge of the opening through which the possessing spirit
had slipped out, leaving as a trace of his passage some of his diabolic
but still potent virtue.[586] That the superstition regarding these
cranial disks lasted well into the sixteenth century, even among some of
the educated, is proven by the fact that on a bracelet which belonged to
and was worn by Catherine de’ Medici, one of the talismans was a piece
of a human skull.
Attention was first called to the strange amulets taken from the human
skull by the operation of trephining, by M. Prunetière, at a meeting of
the French Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Lyons in
1873.[587] The specimen he then exhibited came from a sepulture in the
department of Lozère. This particular example showed a break on the
edge, and M. Paul Broca has conjectured that a small piece may have been
chipped off, so that it might be pulverized and administered as a powder
to persons suffering from disease of the brain, a treatment favored by
those who doubted the generally-believed supernatural origin of
epilepsy, and suspected its source in some lesion of the brain or of the
meninges. For this, of course, no more efficient remedy could suggest
itself, according to the old sympathetic theory of medicines, than a
powder made from the skull of one who had been an epileptic. These
skull-amulets have been unearthed in neolithic burials in various parts
of France, a considerable number having been found by M. de Baye and
others in the department of Marne; a specimen was also found in an
Algerian sepulture by General Faidherbe.
The great Greek physician Hippocrates of Cos, a contemporary of Plato,
advised that resort should be had to the operation of trephining in many
cases of injury to the head, and that the ancient Hindus were to a
certain extent familiar with it as a method of treating diseases of the
brain appears in one of the Buddhist recitals from a Tibetan source.
Here it is related that Atreya, master of the King of Physicians,
Jîvaka, when appealed to for help by a man suffering from a distressful
cerebral disorder, directed the man to dig a pit and fill it up with
dung; he then thrust the man into this soft and savory mass until
nothing but his head and neck protruded, and opened his skull. From it
was drawn out a reptile whose presence had caused the malady. Jîvaka
seems to have been in consultation with his master in this interesting
operation, and is said to have later extracted a centipede from a man’s
skull after making an aperture therein with a golden knife.[588] In
neither of these cases, however, do we have any hint that disks or
fragments from the human skull were used as amulets.
A ghastly object much favored in France in the Middle Ages, as it was
believed to give the owner the power to discover hidden treasures, was
the so-called _main-de-gloire_, or “hand of glory,” which was the
desiccated hand of one who had met his death by hanging.[589]
A remarkable talismanic bracelet owned by Catherine de’ Medici was set
with a skull-fragment and with a representation of a “_main-de-gloire_.”
This is described in the catalogue made in 1786 of M. d’Ennery’s
collection. The settings of the bracelet, ten in number, comprised the
following objects, to each of which was probably ascribed some special
significance and virtue.[590]
An oval “eagle-stone” (ætites), on which was graven in intaglio a winged
dragon; above this figure was the date 1559, the year in which the
bracelet was composed and that of the death of Catherine’s husband,
Henri II.
An octagonal agate, traversed by a number of tubular apertures, the
orifices of which could be seen on either side of the stone.
A very fine oval onyx of three colors, bearing graven on its edge the
following names of angels: Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Uriel.
A large oval turquoise with a gold band.
A piece of black and white marble.
An oval brown agate, with a caduceus, a star and a crescent engraved in
intaglio on one of its faces, and on its edge the name Jehovah and
certain talismanic characters; on the other face were figured the
constellation Serpens, the zodiacal sign Scorpio and the Sun, around
which were the six planets.
An oblong section of a human skull.
A rounded piece of gold on the convex side of which was graven in relief
the “hand of glory” (_main-de-gloire_); on the concave side appeared the
Sun and Moon done in repoussé work.
A perfectly round onyx, bearing graven in the centre the name or word
“Publeni”; this possibly designated the original Roman owner of the
stone.
In the opinion of a German writer of the eleventh or twelfth century,
the amethyst, if worn by a man, attracted to him the love of noble
women, and also protected him from the attacks of thieves.[591] This
stone was always prized because of its beautiful color, even though it
was never so rare or costly as some others. Some authorities assert that
the amethyst induces sleep.[592] Perhaps this was one of the means by
which the stone cured inebriety, as it enabled its votaries to sleep off
the effects of their potations.
As testimony of the belief in the efficiency, remedial or talismanic, of
precious stones prevalent at the opening of the fifteenth century, may
be noted the presence among the manuscript books of Marguerite de
Flandres, Duchesse de Bourgogne, of a work listed as follows: “The book
of the properties of certain stones.” It was carefully enclosed in a
crimson velvet covering.[593] Incidentally it is a rather interesting
fact that at this early date, 1405, we find in Duchess Margaret’s little
library two Bibles in French and a separate copy of the Gospels also in
that language. This serves to disprove the popular idea that
translations of the Bible into the vernacular were in distinct disfavor
with Roman Catholics before the era of the Reformation. Of course until
the invention and use of the art of printing there could be no wide
diffusion of such translations.
The jacinth is described by Thomas de Cantimpré as being a stone of a
yellow color. “It is very hard and difficult to cleave, or cut; it can,
however, be worked with diamond dust. It is very cold, especially when
held in the mouth.” Among many other virtues, it protects from
melancholia and poison, and makes the wearer beloved of God and men. It
also acts as a sort of barometer, since it grows dark and dull in bad
weather and becomes clear and bright in fine weather.[594] Cardano says
that when the weather was fine the stone became obscure and dull, but
when a tempest was impending, it assumed the ruddy hue of a burning
coal. It also lost its color when in contact with any one suffering from
disease, more especially from the plague.[595]
As a result of his study of precious stones, Cardano was induced to
affirm that they had life, but he gravely states that he had never noted
that they possessed sex (a common belief in his day), although “as
nature delights as much in miracle as we do, some may be so constituted
that they are almost distinguished by sex.”[596]
The beautiful sapphire has always been a great favorite with lovers of
precious stones and to it has been attributed a chastening, purifying
influence upon the soul. Even Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,
wherein precious stones are rarely mentioned, takes occasion to write as
follows of the sapphire: “It is the fairest of all precious stones of
sky colour, and a great enemy to black choler, frees the mind, mends
manners.”[597]
[Illustration:
FROM A PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
In the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, K. G., Hardwick Hall. The
queen has jewels in her hair, a pearl eardrop, and two necklaces,
one fitting close to the neck, the other falling over the breast.
The stiff brocade skirt is embroidered with a wonderful array of
aquatic birds and animals. On the left, the cushion of the chair of
state is embroidered with the queen’s monogram. Surmounting the
chair is a crystal ball. The original canvas measures 90 × 66
inches.
]
The poets have sung the praises of the turquoise. In Shakespeare’s
Merchant of Venice, when the “amorous Jessica” made off with her
father’s jewels, Shylock particularly bewails the disappearance of his
turquoise, crying out that he would not have lost it for “a wilderness
of monkeys.” The poet Donne, also, writes of this stone and draws
attention to its sympathetic quality in these words:
As a compassionate turquoise that doth tell,
By looking pale, the wearer is not well.
That Queen Elizabeth clung fondly to life is well known, and it is said
that she trusted much in the virtues of a talisman which she wore round
her neck. This was a piece of gold engraved with certain mystic
characters. The statement has also been made that at the bottom of a
chair in which she often sat, was the queen of hearts from a pack of
cards, having a nail driven through the forehead of the figure.[598]
Could this have been a spell of witchcraft used against her hated rival,
Mary of Scotland?
The belief that turquoise changes its hue with the changing health of
the wearer leads an early seventeenth century author to offer it as a
symbol of wifely devotion, saying that “a true wife should be like a
turquoise stone, clear in heart in her husband’s health, and cloudy in
his sickness.” Although a more prosaic explanation than that of occult
sympathy has been proposed for this asserted change of hue, we need not
therefore reject the more poetic fancy.[599]
Among the believers in the virtue of amulets must be counted the French
religious philosopher, Pascal. After his death in 1662 there was found,
sewed up in his pourpoint, a piece of paper bearing a long and very
strange inscription. At the top was a cross with rays, a similar cross
being drawn at the bottom of the text. This began with the following
words:
Monday, November 23, the day of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and of
others in the martyrology.
The Eve of St. Chrysogone, martyr, and of others. From about half-past
ten in the evening until about a half-hour after midnight,
FIRE
Then follow a series of ejaculations and short religious sentences, and
toward the end, after the name of Christ, thrice repeated, the words:
I have separated myself from Him, I have fled from Him, denied Him.
and finally the prayer that this separation might henceforth cease. The
original text is said to be in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris with
the MS. of the “Pensées.”
Pascal is stated to have always kept this amulet on his person, removing
it carefully from the lining of an old garment and putting in a new one,
when this was assumed. The strange introduction referred to a vision of
fire which he had had on the night in question, and this has been
explained as resulting from a severe nervous shock he had experienced
six months before, when driving along the banks of the Seine. As the
vehicle neared Neuilly the horses took fright and ran away, dashing
toward the edge of the bank; just on the brink the reins broke and the
horses plunged down into the river, leaving the carriage in which Pascal
was sitting on the edge of the precipice. This shock impressed him so
vividly that he would often see the precipice before him as distinctly
as though it were a reality. In any case the matter is of interest as
showing that one of the most gifted men of the seventeenth century was a
believer in amulets.[600]
The giving of corals to new-born infants was expressly forbidden in 1708
in the bishopric of Bamberg, because of the superstition connected
therewith, although Christian painters of the fourteenth century often
represented the child Jesus as holding corals in his hand. The
persistence of the superstition as to the Evil Eye and the belief that
coral safeguarded the wearer therefrom, have impressed many cultured
Italians of our day, and even so able and clear-headed a statesman as
prime minister Crispi is said never to have gone to a parliamentary
sitting without having with him a coral amulet.[601]
Some characteristic Hindu amulets figure the god Jagannath (Lord of the
World), or associated divinities, and also symbols related to the
worship of this form of Krishna.[602] In the month Joyestha (May-June)
his world-renowned temple at Puri in Orissa is thronged with pilgrims
from all parts of India, and on the great festival day his image and
those of his brother Balarana and of his sister Subhadra are taken out
of the sanctuary and placed in an elaborately decorated car, which is
drawn through the streets of the city. The readiness of fanatical
believers to sacrifice their lives by casting themselves beneath the
wheels of this ponderous car, has made the expression “Car of Jagannath”
almost a household word, freely used by those who know little or nothing
about Hindu religion. The English Government has long since put a stop
to these reckless and useless martyrdoms.
Many of these amulets are made of a black steatite. One represents
Krishna (Jagannath) standing and playing on a flute, another figures
this avatar of Vishnu with his wife Radha. A curious series presents
Jagannath, Balarana and Subhadra; the unnaturally large heads of the
figures and the truncated crowns and legs are explained by the fact that
the group was carved from the trisala of a tope of a Buddhist temple
erected at Puri in the third century B.C., the Hindus of a later time
having utilized this relic of a former faith for gods of their ethnic
religion. There are also a number of stamps, incised with emblematic
figures such as a shell, a _sankha_ wheel, a serpent, two footprints,
etc., so that the corresponding seal may be impressed in colored clay
upon the arms of the faithful in the sanctuary of Jagannath. Many of the
amulets bearing the double footprint, emblematic of Vishnu
(Krishna-Jagannath), are arranged in groups of five, all being
perforated so that a group can be suspended on the person.
The footprints are explained by a curious legend to the effect that when
a dispute as to superiority arose between the gods of the Trimurti,
Brahma, Siva and Vishnu, the selection of a test to decide this was left
to Bhrigu, one of the ten patriarchs. He approached Brahma without
saluting him; this infuriated the god, but he restrained himself.
Approaching Siva in turn, Bhrigu failed to return the god’s salutation,
which so enraged him that he raised his trident to slay the insulter,
and was only prevented from doing this by the timely intervention of the
goddess Parvati. Nothing daunted Bhrigu pursued his test, and, finding
Vishnu reposing with his head in Lakshmi’s lap, he kicked the divinity
to arouse him. Vishnu, however, instead of losing his temper, quietly
arose; saluted the rash patriarch, and even thanked him for the
reminder, and craved his pardon that he had not immediately greeted him,
asserting that the kick (which must have been most vigorously
administered if it left _two_ footprints) had left on his breast a mark
of good augury.
[Illustration:
COMPLETE VIEW OF THE ANCIENT JADE GIRDLE-PENDANT (FROM, KU YÜ T’U P’U)
From “Jade,” by Berthold Laufer.
By courtesy of the author and Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago.
]
A fine presentation of the style of jewels worn by the Mahârânî of
Sikkim, a full-blooded Tibetan by birth, is offered by a portrait of
this queen done in oil by Damodar Dutt, a Bengali artist, in 1908, while
the Mahârânî was sharing the captivity of her husband at Darjeeling,
where they had been sequestrated by the British authorities for many
years. The elaborate and rather oppressive headdress is a typical
adornment of the queens of Sikkim; the broad bandeaux are composed of
pearls, and a brilliant color effect is produced by the rows of
alternating corals and turquoises. The gold ear-rings have a
turquoise-inlay, in concentric rings, and from the queen’s neck hangs a
long necklace of coral beads, separated at intervals by large spheres of
amber; a coral bracelet and two rings, with coral and turquoise setting
respectively, complete the very effective, if not especially costly,
jewelry.[603]
Jade girdle pendants having a talismanic quality were in great favor
during the period of the Chou dynasty (1122–249 B.C.). The typical
girdle pendant of that time was a seven-jewelled one, each of the
combined ornaments being made of some one of the choice varieties of
jade. These adornments consisted of a top-piece or brooch, whence
depended a circular central plaque (yü), flanked by two square ornaments
(kü); below followed a centre-ornament of segment form, on either side
of which was a bow-shaped jewel. The girdle ornaments were rich in
symbolic significance, the rhythmic swinging of the jades caused a
musical note whenever they came in contact with one another, or with any
metallic object; as love-trinkets they had the most fortunate meaning;
as indications of office they gained consideration and respect for the
wearers of high rank, while for those of less distinction they were so
differentiated as to become marks of the respective craft or
vocation.[604]
In Siam the girls’ heads are shaved, with the exception of the top of
the head, where a knot of hair is allowed to grow. On the fourteenth
anniversary of the girl’s birthday this “top-knot” is cut off, the
operation being accompanied by a solemn religious ceremony, to mark
and consecrate the event, which denotes the passing of the girl into
womanhood. On this occasion, the members of the family gather together
all the jewels they can secure for the adornment of the “new woman,”
and where they are not wealthy enough to provide brilliant and rich
ornaments from their own possessions kind friends will always be found
ready to supply the deficiency. In the case of the Siamese girl
figured in our plate, and of a girl companion, the Queen of Siam
herself acted as fairy godmother to the extent of furnishing from her
own private treasures a costly and suitable decoration. The gems and
ornaments worn were worth $20,000 and are said to have filled a small
steamer-trunk.[605]
In a favorite form of white jade amulet, the stone is cut flat and is
then inlaid with rubies in gold settings, so disposed as to indicate a
flower-form. Jade amulets of this type are found in China and in various
parts of northern Asia, and are believed to guard or free the wearer
from palpitation of the heart.[606]
[Illustration:
TIBETAN WOMAN WITH COMPLETE JEWELRY
From “Notes on Turquois in the East,” by Berthold Laufer.
By courtesy of the author and Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago.
]
Flowers fashioned from precious stones make most attractive ornaments,
and by their variety of coloring can be worn with almost any costume. A
celebrated beauty of London society has a number of pansies of different
colors, one made of rubies, another of sapphires, still another of
emeralds, and so on through the range of colors. In this way she always
had a pansy according in color with that of her gown. As bridal gifts
these jewel-flowers are most appropriate, more especially when the
lady-love bears a “floral name” such as Violet or Rose.
Coral ornaments of all sorts are in great demand in Tibet, and a fine
piece of this material will bring about $20 an ounce, and is therefore
literally worth its weight in gold. The Venetian traveller, Marco Polo,
who visited Tibet in the latter half of the thirteenth century, already
noted that coral was in high favor there and that coral necklaces
adorned the necks of the women and also those of the idols in their
temples. The love of personal adornment is very strong among the Tibetan
women, and those in any way well-to-do load themselves with a mass of
jewelled ornaments, great pieces of amber, coral and turquoise
constituting the principal gem-material. The favor extended to coral,
apart from the religious significance of red as symbolical of one of the
incarnations of Buddha, may perhaps have an esthetic basis as well, for
red or pink affords a pleasant contrast to the dark complexions and hair
of the Tibetans.[607]
Much more prized, however, than coral is the beautiful blue turquoise,
which not only serves for purely ornamental use but is freely employed
in the decoration of religious objects, such as the curious “prayer
wheels” so indispensable a part of Tibetan ritual.
The talismanic quality of this stone is an important element in its
popularity, as it is supposed to bring good fortune and physical
well-being to the wearer and to afford protection against contagion. The
Tibetans share in the quite general belief that the turquoise will grow
pale in sympathy with the present or prospective fortune and health of
the person wearing it, and as a loss of color is considered portentous
of coming evil, such stones are gotten rid of as soon as possible to be
replaced by those of a brighter hue. The dealers who buy up for a
trifling sum these discolored turquoises often treat them with a dose of
blue dyestuff which superficially restores the color, and it is stated
that many of the soldiers of the British expeditionary force to Tibet in
1904 were at first deceived into buying these vamped-up stones, but they
soon discovered the deception and were more careful later on. Turquoises
are also believed to guard against the Evil Eye, and a quasi-sacred
character is lent to some especially fine specimens by setting them in
the foreheads of statues of the Buddha or other religious images.[608]
The women of Tibet are said to prize most highly as amulets pieces of
cloth adorned with turquoise or coral, which they have acquired from the
Lamas, who by the imposition of their priestly blessing have endowed
these objects with a peculiar sanctity in the eyes of the Tibetan
devotees. Another amulet favored in this far-off land is a small metal
box of gold, silver, or copper, and encrusted with turquoise. Within are
enclosed little scrolls inscribed with mystic characters to conjure evil
spirits and thwart their malevolent schemes for the tribulation of
mankind.
An ingenious, if rather far-fetched explanation of the supposed power of
coral to avert lightning and hail is given by Fortunio Liceti. In his
opinion, coral, being of a warm quality, overcomes the coldness of the
atmosphere, which produces lightning by the attraction of contraries,
and hail by its own quality. This is a specimen of the attempts to find
a plausible physiological reason for the powers of gems, the writers
never for a moment hesitating to accept the popular beliefs in this
respect.[609]
[Illustration:
“THE LIGHT OF THE EAST”
Mural fresco painting by Albert Herter, in the Hotel St. Francis, San
Francisco, California. The crystal ball upheld by the female figure
is more highly esteemed in Japan than any other jewel. Note the fine
contrast afforded by the black armor of the Japanese warrior to the
white arm and pure crystal sphere.
By Courtesy of the Artist and Hotel St. Francis, San Francisco.
]