A. Améthiste. Aigue-marine.
B. Brilliant. Diamant, désigniant la même pierre.
C. Chrisolithe. Carnaline. Chrisophrase.
D. Diamant.
E. Emeraude.
F. (_Pas de pierre connue._)
G. Grenat.
H. Hiacinthe.
I. Iris.
J. Jasper.
K. (_Pas de pierre connue._)
L. Lapis lazuli.
M. Malachite.
N. Natralithe.
O. Onix. Opale.
P. Perle. Peridot. Purpurine.
Q. (_Pas de pierre connue._)
R. Rubis. Rose diamant.
S. Saphir. Sardoine.
T. Turquoise. Topaze.
U. Uraine.
V. Vermeille (_espèce de grenat jaune_).
X. Xépherine.
Y. Z. (_Pas de nous connus._)
Kobell says,[99] “In _name-rings_, in which a name is indicated
by the initial letter of different gems, the emerald is mostly
used under its English and French name (_Emeraude_) to stand for
_e_, which would otherwise not be represented. (The German name
is _Smaragd_.) While on this point, it may be mentioned that a
difficulty occurs with _u_, but recent times have furnished a name
which may assist, namely, a green garnet, containing chrome, from
Siberia, which has been baptized after the Russian Minister Uwarrow,
and called _Uwarrovite_.”
The Poles have a fanciful belief that each month of the year is
under the influence of a precious stone, which influence has a
corresponding effect on the destiny of a person born during the
respective month. Consequently it is customary among friends and
lovers, on birth-days, to make reciprocal presents of trinkets
ornamented with the natal stones. The stones and their influences,
corresponding with each month, are supposed to be as follows:
January--Garnet. Constancy and Fidelity.
February--Amethyst. Sincerity.
March--Bloodstone. Courage, presence of mind.
April--Diamond. Innocence.
May--Emerald. Success in love.
June--Agate. Health and long life.
July--Cornelian. Contented mind.
August--Sardonyx. Conjugal felicity.
September--Chrysolite. Antidote against madness.
October--Opal. Hope.
November--Topaz. Fidelity.
December--Turquoise. Prosperity.
Modern jewellers are known to palm off imitations of gems; and so
did sellers of trinkets in ancient times. The moderns only run the
chance of a loss of custom; but the latter were well off if they got
no greater fright than the jeweller who sold to the wife of Gallienus
a ring with a piece of glass in it. Gallienus ordered the cheat to be
placed in the circus, as though he were to be exposed to the ferocity
of a lion. While the miserable jeweller trembled at the expectation
of instant death, the executioner, by order of the emperor, let loose
a capon upon him. An uncommon laugh was raised at this; and the
emperor observed that he who had deceived others should expect to be
deceived himself.
A ring often figures in the old English ballads. Thus, in _Child
Noryce_, the hero of it invites Lady Barnard to the merry greenwood:
“Here is a ring, a ring, he says,
It’s all gold but the stane;
You may tell her to come to the merry greenwood,
And ask the leave o’ nane.”
§ 21. A ring, as an heraldic figure, is found in coats of arms
throughout every kingdom in Europe. In Heraldry, it is called an
_annulet_. We find the ring “gemmed” borne in the _arms_ of the
Montgomeries, who hold the Earldom of Eglinton; and one of whom
figures in the ballad of Chevy Chase:
“Against Sir Hugh Montgomerie
So right his shaft he set,
The gray-goose-wing that was therein
In his heart blood was wet.”
A father and son of this family were opposed to each other in the
battle of Marston Moor. The father, from his bearing, had the popular
appellation of _Gray Steel_. We find the amulet borne in the coats of
arms of several of the peers and gentlemen of England.
Louis IX. of France, St. Louis, took for his device a marguerite or
daisy and fleur-de-lis, in allusion to the name of Queen Marguerite
his wife and the arms of France, which were also his own.[100] He
had a ring made with a relief around it in enamel, which represented
a garland of marguerites and fleurs-de-lis. One was engraven on a
sapphire with these words, “_This ring contains all we love._” Thus,
it has been said, did this excellent prince show his people that he
loved nothing but Religion, France and his wife. It is a question,
however, whether the emblem on the escutcheon of the kings of France
is really a fleur-de-lis. Some think it was originally a toad,
which formed the crest of the helmet worn by Pharamond; and others,
the golden bees which were discovered in the tomb of Childeric
at Tournay in 1653.[101] The story is that Clovis, after baptism,
received a fleur-de-lis from an angel. Since then France has been
called “the empire of lilies.” The coat of arms of Clovis and his
successors was a field of azure, seeded with golden fleurs-de-lis.
§ 22. The story of losing rings and finding them in fish, is as old
as Pliny, and we shall have to mention Solomon’s ring, which, it is
said, was found in one. We have an English statement[102] of a Mrs.
Todd, of Deptford, who, in going in a boat to Whitstable, endeavored
to prove that no person need be poor who was willing to be otherwise;
and, being excited with her argument, she took off her gold ring and
throwing it into the sea, said, “It was as much impossible for any
person to be poor, who had an inclination to be otherwise, as for her
ever to see that ring again.” The second day after this, and when she
had landed, she bought some mackerel, which the servant commenced to
dress for dinner, whereupon there was found a gold ring in one. The
servant ran to show it to her mistress, and the ring proved to be
that which she had thrown away.
We are told in Brand’s “History of Newcastle,” that a gentleman of
that city, in the middle of the seventeenth century, dropped a ring
from his hand over the bridge into the river Tyne. Years passed on;
he had lost all hopes of recovering the ring, when one day his wife
bought a fish in the market, and in the stomach of that fish was
the identical jewel which had been lost! From the pains taken to
commemorate this event, it would appear to be true; it was merely an
occurrence possible, but extremely unlikely to have occurred.
We are inclined to add in this section a circumstance connected with
a ring as it appeared in a respectable English periodical. Fact,
here, beats fiction:
“Many years ago a lady sent her servant, a young man about twenty
years of age, and a native of that part of the country where his
mistress resided, to the neighboring town with a ring, which required
some alteration, to be delivered into the hands of a jeweller. The
young man went the shortest way across the fields; and coming to a
little wooden bridge that crossed a small stream, he leant against
the rail, and took the ring out of its case to look at it. While
doing so, it slipped out of his hand, and fell into the water. In
vain he searched for it, even till it grew dark. He thought it fell
into the hollow of a stump of a tree under water, but he could not
find it. The time taken in the search was so long, that he feared to
return and tell his story, thinking it incredible, and that he should
be even suspected of having gone into evil company and gamed it away
or sold it. In this fear he determined never to return--left wages
and clothes, and fairly ran away. This seemingly great misfortune was
the making of him. His intermediate history I know not; but this,
that after many years’ absence, either in the East or West Indies, he
returned with a very considerable fortune. He now wished to clear
himself with his old mistress; ascertained that she was living;
purchased a diamond ring of considerable value, which he determined
to present in person, and clear his character, by telling his tale,
to which the credit of his present position might testify. He took
the coach to the town of----, and from thence set out to walk the
distance of a few miles. He found, I should tell you, on alighting,
a gentleman who resided in the neighborhood, who was bound for the
adjacent village. They walked together, and in conversation, this
former servant, now a gentleman, with graceful manners and agreeable
address, communicated the circumstance that made him leave the
country abruptly many years before. As he was telling this, they came
to the very wooden bridge. ‘There,’ said he; ‘it was just here that I
dropped the ring; and there is the very bit of old tree into a hole
of which it fell--just there.’ At the same time he put down the point
of his umbrella into the hole of the knot in the tree, and drawing it
up, to the astonishment of both, found the very ring on the ferrule
of the umbrella.”
Here also was an occurrence against which one would have previously
said the chances were as one to infinity. It was a circumstance which
we see to be most unlikely, yet must acknowledge to be possible, and,
when well authenticated, to be true.
In the year 1765, a codfish was sold, and in its stomach was a gold
ring. It had remained there so long that the inscription was worn
off, although the scrolls in which it had been written remained
entire.[103] Codfish, like sharks, swallow any thing, whether fresh
or salted, bits of wood, red cloth, and even a whole book has been
found in one. We are not aware, however, that a cod has turned
“State’s evidence,” as it is said a shark did. A shark had swallowed
a log-book, thrown overboard to him by a pirate; and afterwards
repenting, took the first hook that offered, and thus turned State’s
evidence--so as to hang the villain by the revelation of the
document.[104]
§ 23. Poetical riddles are but a low species of verse, and yet the
best of poets have made them. We find a neat one on a ring, which, in
riddle-phrase, has been said to “unite two people together and touch
only one.” It runs thus:
“Though small of body, it contains
The extremes of pleasure and of pains;
Has no beginning, nor no end;
More hollow than the falsest friend.
If it entraps some headless zany,
Or, in its magic circle, any
Have entered, from its sorcery
No power on earth can set them free.
At least, all human force is vain,
Or less than many hundred men.
Though endless, yet not short, nor long;
And what though it’s so wondrous strong,
The veriest child, that’s pleased to try,
Might carry fifty such as I.”
George Herbert--“Holy Mr. Herbert,” as Isaac Walton calls him--has
an enigma in which a ring appears. We must confess our inability to
solve it, and leave readers to do so. It is entitled--
“HOPE.
“I gave to Hope a watch of mine; but he
An anchor gave to me.
Then an old prayer-book I did present,
And he an optic sent.
With that, I gave a phial full of tears;
But he a few green ears.
Ah, loiterer! I’ll no more, no more I’ll bring:
I did expect a ring.”
§ 24. Rings are sometimes misapplied. In the church of Loretto is
the house in which some Catholics say the Virgin mother of Jesus was
born, it having occupied a lane in Nazareth where Christ resided,
and which, after a long flight of years, was transported by angels
to Loretto. It must, as it stood in Nazareth, have resembled a mud
cabin. Within it is a miraculous statue of the Virgin and child, in
cedar wood. “The Bambino,” says an authoress, “holds up his hand, as
if to sport a superb diamond ring on his finger, presented to him
by Cardinal Antonelli; it is a single diamond, and weighs thirty
grains.”[105]
§ 25. The scenes through which many rings are carried must be as
remarkable as those exhibited in “The Adventures of a Guinea,” or
“of a Feather.” “My Lady Rochford,” writes Horace Walpole, “desired
me t’other day to give her a motto for a ruby ring, which had been
given by a handsome woman of quality to a fine man; he gave it to
his mistress, she to Lord *****, he to my Lady; who, I think, does
not deny that it has not yet finished its travels. I excused myself
for some time, on the difficulty of reducing such a history to a
poesy--at last I proposed this:
‘This was given by woman to man and by man to woman.’”[106]
* * * * *
It may be well for the author to so far take the part of a jeweller,
as to sort his Rings before he exhibits them.
We propose to speak of: