Sidebilder
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1. Emerald that belonged to the deposed Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid; weight 45.33 carats. Auctioned December 11, 1911, Paris.

11⁄2. Side view of the emerald.

2. Almandite garnet (transparent) fashioned into a knuckle bone; on the upper surface is engraved an eagle with outspread wings, above which are the Greek characters kaky. Charm seal of some early knuckle-bone player. Sardonyx idol-eye of a Babylonian bull, pierced for suspension. Engraved at a later period with the head of a Parthian king. 4. Aquamarine seal (transparent).

3.

Sassanian Pahlavi. Found in ruins of Babylonia.

NO VIMU AIMBOTLIAD

moment, or else a more powerful enchanter guided the fortunes of the enemy, for the latter prevailed and the owner of the potent topaz was left dying upon the field of battle. Alongside him was a poor wounded soldier who was clamoring for a drop of water to quench his burning thirst. Hearkening to this prayer, the dying necromancer threw his topaz to the soldier, telling him to place it upon his heart. No sooner did he do so than his thirst passed away, and we must suppose that his wounds were also healed, for we are told that on the morrow he sought everywhere on the battle-field for the corpse of his benefactor but could find no trace of it.

Tavernier, the great French Seventeenth Century jeweler-traveler, the first European to visit the ruby mines, took with him a number of emeralds, generally large. These were often cut from the top of the crystal, usually darker in color, and simply domed off, preserving the original hexagonal shape. Remarkable specimens are in the Indian Museum and the South Kensington Museum, part of the jewels of Thebaud, King of Burma. The finest emeralds of this type belonged to the late Sultan of Turkey; one of the finest, a remarkable gem, cut rounded en cabochon, was with the Bijoux du Sultan, S. M. Abd-Ul-Hamid II, sold at the Galerie Georges Petit, November 28, 1914. It weighed 44 3/16 carats (old system) or 45.29 carats (metric system). (See color plate.)

A remarkable charm is a hemispherical, transparent aquamarine, with figure of hump bull, found in ancient Babylonia. (See color plate.)

A quaint, ancient amulet is carved out of fine knuckle bone, an eagle with spread wings engraved on one side; portrait of a Parthian King. (See color plate.)

A Babylonian idol's eye, of sardonyx, was pierced and worn as charm against the Evil Eye; later engraved with portrait of a Parthian King. (See color plate.)

IV

On the Virtues of Fabulous Stones, Concretions and Fossils

OT only precious or semi-precious stones were used as charms or talismans and for curative purposes; a large number of animal concretions also were and are still somewhat in favor. These concretions, variously composed but usually containing a quantity of carbonate of lime, are found in different parts of animals' bodies, and they were believed to contain a sort of quintessence of the nature of the animal in which they occurred. For this reason the alectorius, from the body of the cock, one of the most widelyknown of the animal stones in ancient times, was thought to confer valor upon the wearer, and is said to have been worn by athletes in their contests.

In the case of venomous, or supposedly venomous, creatures, such as the toad and certain snakes, the stone was used as an antidote for poisons. This virtue was thought to be notably present in the so-called bezoar stone, taken from the stomach of a species of goat, as well as from some other animals. As we shall see, legend sought to account for the peculiar qualities of the bezoar by the tale that the animals in whose bodies the stones were formed had been bitten by serpents. Indeed, it seems not unlikely that the belief in the curative properties of the bezoar stone originally owed its existence to the finding of some such concretion in the body of an animal that had died from the effects of snake-bite.

As is well known, certain pathological conditions induce the formation of stones of various kinds and shapes in the

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human body also. Here the tendency has been to use these stones to counteract the disease which produced them. Renal or vesical calculi, for instance, were recommended for diseases of the kidneys and bladder, a treatment quite in accord with the popular idea of the homeopathic theory.

Another class of animal substances, namely, the fossil teeth of the shark, enjoyed a tremendous vogue at one time, and were known by the name of glossopetræ. These were usually regarded as stones, and because of their peculiar form were frequently assimilated to the belemnites and even to the flint arrow-heads and other prehistoric flint instruments, which were dug up in many places. All these flint artefacts were believed to have been precipitated to the earth by the discharge of electricity during a thunder-storm; in other words, they were "thunder-bolts." The same idea was frequently held as to the origin of the glossopetræ, and those found on the island of Malta were brought into connection with an incident of St. Paul's visit to that island.

In many different countries, especially in the north of Europe, these flint arrow-heads and the fossil remains of similar form, were called fairy-darts or elf-shots, and were believed to be the enchanted weapons of the elves and fairies, who, in the old folklore, are represented as beings of a very different quality from the fairies and elves of the tales of our childhood. In some parts of Europe at the present day, for example in Ireland, the peasantry talk with bated breath of the doings of the "good people," for they shrink from using the word "fairy" lest it might offend these mysterious and generally malevolent beings. The designation "good people" is therefore used to placate and flatter them.

Various shell fossils were also used as talismans. Here the form generally determined the virtues they were supposed to possess. Some of these strange forms lent them1 See Chapter II, pp. 106-116,

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