II
On the Use of Precious and Semi-Precious Stones as Talismans and Amulets

THE use of precious stones in early times as amulets and talismans is shown in many ancient records, and several scholars have assumed that the belief in the magic efficacy of stones gave rise to their use as objects of personal adornment. It is, of course, very difficult either to prove or to disprove such a theory, for, even in the case of the oldest texts, we must bear in mind that they do not in the least represent primitive conditions, and that many thousands of years must have elapsed before a people could attain the grade of civilization necessary for the production of even the simplest literature. For this reason, certain investigators have preferred to seek for a solution of this problem in the customs and habits of the so-called uncivilized peoples of our own time; but we must not forget that conditions which seem to us very rudimentary are, nevertheless, the result of a long process of development. Even if this development was arrested many centuries or millenniums ago, it must have required a very considerable period of time to evolve such usages and conventions as are found even among the lowest races. Indeed, many uncivilized peoples have very complicated rules and observances, testifying to considerable thought and reflection.

Fetichism in all its forms depends upon an imperfect conception of what constitutes life and conscious being, so that will and thought are attributed to inanimate objects. We can observe this in the case of animals and very young children, who regard any moving object as endowed with life. In the case of stones, however, it seems probable that those supposed to be the abode of spirits, good or evil, were selected because their natural form suggested that of some animal or of some portion of the human body. On the other hand, the wearing of what we call precious stones is more likely to have been due to the attraction exercised by bright colors upon the eye of the beholder and to the desire to display some distinguishing mark that would command attention and admiration for the wearer. This tendency runs through the higher animal kingdom, and its workings have served as a foundation for the theory of natural selection.

It seems likely that we have here the true explanation of the motive for the gathering, preserving, and wearing of precious stones. Since these objects are motionless, they can scarcely have impressed the mind of primitive man with the idea that they were alive; they were not imposing by their mass, as were large stones, and their crystalline form scarcely figured any known living shape. Hence their chief, we may even say their only attraction was their color and brilliancy. What effect these qualities had upon the visual sense of primitive man may be safely inferred from the effect such objects produce upon infants. The baby has no fear in regard to a small and brilliantly colored object which is shown to it, but will eagerly put out its hand to seize, hold, and gaze upon a bright-colored stone. As the object is quite passive and easily handled, there is nothing to suggest any lurking power to harm, and therefore there is nothing to interfere with the pleasurable sensation aroused in the optic nerve by the play of color. In this naïve admiration of what is brilliant and colored, the infant undoubtedly represents for us the mental attitude of primitive man.

The theory that colored and brilliant stones were first collected by men because of their beauty rather than because of their talismanic virtues, is corroborated by the statement made that seals select with considerable care the stones they swallow, and observers on the fishing grounds have noted this and believe that pebbles of chalcedony and serpentine found there have been brought by the seals.9

The popular derivation of the word “amulet” from an Arabic word hamalât, signifying something suspended or worn, is not accepted by the best Arabic scholars, and it seems probable that the name is of Latin origin, in spite of the fact that no very satisfactory etymology can be given. Pliny’s use of amuletum shows that with him the word did not always denote an object that was worn on the person, although this later became its meaning. The old etymology given by Varro (118-29 B.C.), who derived amuletum from the verb amoliri, “to remove,” “to drive away,” may not be quite in accord with modern philology, but still has something to recommend it as far as the sense goes, for the amulet was certainly believed to hold dangers aloof, or even to remove them. Talisman, however, a word not used in classical times, undoubtedly comes from the Arabic tilsam, this being in turn derived from τέλεσμα, used in late Greek to signify an initiation, or an incantation.

It has been remarked that in the earliest Stone Age there is no trace of either idols or images; the art of this period being entirely profane. In the later Stone Age, however, entirely different ideas seem to have gained the ascendancy, for a majority of the objects of plastic art so far discovered have a religious significance. This has evidently proceeded from the conception that every image of a living object absorbs something of the essence of the object itself, and this conception, while a primitive one, still presupposes a certain degree of development. This rule applies more especially to amulets, which were therefore fashioned as beautifully as primitive art permitted, that they might become fitting abodes for the benevolent spirits believed to animate them and render them efficacious.10

A curious idol or talisman from Houaïlou, New Caledonia, is in the collection of Signor Giglioli. This is a stone bearing naturally a rude resemblance to the human form.11 We can easily understand that such an object was looked upon as the abode of some spirit, for similar strange natural formations have been regarded with a species of superstitious awe by peoples much more civilized than the natives of New Caledonia.

For the Middle Ages and even down to the seventeenth century, the talismanic virtues of precious stones were believed in by high and low, by princes and peasants, by the learned as well as by the ignorant. Here and there, however, a note of scepticism was sometimes apparent, as in the famous reply of the court jester of Emperor Charles V, to the question, “What is the property of the turquoise?” “Why,” replied he, “if you should happen to fall from a high tower whilst you were wearing a turquoise on your finger, the turquoise would remain unbroken.”

The doctrine of sympathy and antipathy found expression in the belief that the very substance of certain stones was liable to modification by the condition of health or even by the thoughts of the wearer. In case of sickness or approaching death the lustre of the stones was dimmed, or else their bright colors were darkened, and unfaithfulness or perjury produced similar phenomena. Concerning the turquoise, the prosaic explanation can be offered that this stone is affected to a certain extent by the secretions of the skin; but popular superstition saw the same phenomena in the ruby, the diamond, and other stones not possessing the sensitiveness of the turquoise. Hence the true explanation is to be found in the prevailing idea that an occult sympathy existed between stone and wearer. The sentiment underlying the conception is well expressed by Emerson in the following lines from “The Amulet”:

A Persian legend of the origin of diamonds and precious stones shows that in the East these beautiful objects were looked upon as the source of much sin and sorrow. We are told that when God created the world he made no useless things, such as gold, silver, precious stones, and diamonds; but Satan, who is always eager to bring evil among men, kept a close watch to spy out the appetites and passions of the human mind. To his great satisfaction he noted that Eve passionately loved the many-colored flowers that decked the Garden of Eden; he therefore undertook to imitate their brightness and color out of earth, and in this way were produced colored precious stones and diamonds. These in after time so strongly appealed to the greed and covetousness of mankind that they have been the cause of much crime and wretchedness.12

The present age could afford us nearly as many examples of faith in talismans and amulets as any epoch in the past, if people were willing to confess their real beliefs. However, they are half-ashamed of their fondness for such objects, and fail to see that, back of all the folly and superstition that may find expression in this way, there is a deeper meaning in these talismans than we at first perceive. We may be disposed to smile when we are told that many of the soldiers in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 carried amulets of some kind upon their persons, and that the great Marshal Canrobert trusted to the protection of an amulet in the Crimean campaign. Of course the Russian army, during the Russo-Japanese War, was amply provided with amulets, religious medals or pictures to which a special virtue had been given by a priestly blessing.

In all these cases, however, it is not the object itself, but the idea for which it stands and which it incorporates, that gives confidence to the wearer, and in this sense the wearing of a talisman is no more a proof of blind superstition than is the devotion to a flag, in itself only a few square feet of silk or bunting, but, nevertheless, the symbol of the noblest ideas and feelings, of patriotic devotion to one’s native land and to one’s fellow-countrymen. The tendency to give a substantial visible form to an abstract idea is so deeply rooted in humanity that it must be looked upon as responding to a human necessity. It is only very rarely that purely intellectual conceptions can satisfy us; they must be given some external, palpable and visible form to exert their greater influences.

Although it may bear a certain superficial likeness to fetichism, this use of signs and symbols is something entirely and radically different, for the idea is never lost sight of, it is only strengthened and vivified by the contemplation of the symbol. Hence, while we know quite well that the symbol is nothing in itself, we know just as well that it has a real power in its relation to the idea it typifies, and we can no more be indifferent to its injury or destruction than we could be indifferent to the injury or destruction of a cherished memento of one whom we have loved and lost.

What super-subtle sense is it that enables some women to endow their gems with a certain individuality, and leads them to feel that these cold, inanimate objects partake of human emotion? A French writer, Mme. Catulle Mendès, gives expression to this when she says that she always wears as many of her rings as possible, because her gems feel slighted when she leaves them unworn. She continues:

I have a ruby which grows dull, two turquoises which become pale as death, aquamarines which look like siren’s eyes filled with tears, when I forget them too long. How sad I should feel if precious stones did not love to rest upon me!

The symbolical significance of the colors of precious stones is treated at considerable length by Giacinto Gimma,13 who has gathered together a great quantity of material on the subject.

Yellow worn by a man denoted secrecy, and was appropriate for the silent lover; worn by a woman it indicated generosity. Golden yellow was, of course, the symbol of the sun and of Sunday. The precious stone was the chrysolite or the yellow jacinth. The animal connected with the color was the lion, doubtless, from the association of the zodiacal sign Leo with the midsummer sun. Of the seven ages of man yellow typified adolescence. Roman matrons covered their heads with a yellow veil to show their hope of offspring and happiness. Because garments of this color were a sign of grandeur and nobility, a golden vestment is assigned to the Queen of Heaven as a sign of her pre-eminence, as we read in Psalm xlv, 9: “Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” Gimma’s explanation of this as referring to the Virgin Mary is in accord with the Catholic exegesis of his time.

White signified for men friendship, religion, integrity; for women, contemplation, affability, and purity. It was associated with the moon and with Monday and was represented by the pearl. The animal having an affinity with white was quite naturally the ermine. The mystic number was seven, and white was the color of infancy. Among the ancients white was a sign of mourning and sadness, and the Greek matrons attired themselves in white on the death of their husbands. Gimma states that in his time, in Rome, widows used to wear white as mourning for their husbands, while throughout Italy a white band worn around the head was a sign of widowhood.

Red garments on a man indicated command, nobility, lordship, and vengeance; on a woman, pride, obstinacy, and haughtiness. This was the color of the planet Mars and of Tuesday; it was represented by the ruby. Why the lynx should have been selected as the animal for red is rather difficult to understand, but, as the most vivid color, the choice of red as a type of full manhood need not surprise us. Its number was the potent nine, three multiplied by itself. The ancients covered with a red cloth the biers of those who had died valiantly in battle, as Homer14 shows when he relates that the brothers and companions of Hector covered the urn containing the hero’s ashes with soft purple (scarlet) robes. Plutarch asserts that the Lacedemonians clothed their soldiers in red to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies and to manifest a thirst for blood. We might perhaps say much the same of the English “red-coats” to-day. The Italian code of criminal laws known as the “Digesto Nuovo” was bound in red, to signify that a bloody death awaited thieves and murderers.

Blue on a man’s dress indicated wisdom and high and magnanimous thoughts; on a woman’s dress, jealousy in love, politeness, and vigilance. Friday and Venus were represented by blue, and the celestial-hued sapphire was the stone in which this color appeared in all its beauty. Blue was a fit symbol of the age of childhood, but it is less easy to understand the choice of the goat as the animal associated with the color. The significant number was six. Natural science, the contemplation of the heavens and of the heavenly bodies, and the study of stellar influences were all typified by blue.

Green signified for men joyousness, transitory hope, and the decline of friendship; for women, unfounded ambition, childish delight, and change. The early verdure of spring might be regarded as at once a symbol of hope and of eventual disappointment, for it must soon pass away. Mercury, and Wednesday, the day of Mercury, were both typified by green, the sly fox being selected as the animal is sympathy with the wily god. The typical green stone is the emerald, youth is the age of man represented by the color, and five the magic number expressing it. In ancient times green was used in the case of those who died in the flower of youth, an emerald being sometimes placed on the index-finger of the corpse, as a sign that the light of hope was spent, for the lower part of the torches used in religious ceremonies was marked with green. Fulvius Pellegrinus relates that, in the tomb of Tullia, the dearly-beloved daughter of Cicero, there was found an emerald, the most beautiful that had ever been seen. This passed into the hands of the Marchesana di Mantova, Isabella Gonzaga da Este. In Italy the graves of young virgins and of children were covered with green branches. When the Codex Justinianus was rediscovered and added to the other Pandects, it was bound in green to signify that these laws were rejuvenated.

Black for men means gravity, good sense, constancy, and fortitude; for young women, fickleness and foolishness, but for married women, constant love and perseverance. The planet Saturn and Saturday are denoted by black. Strange to say, the diamond, the white gem par excellence, was selected to represent this sombre hue. Perhaps to offset this the animal chosen was the hog. As black was a mourning color, we need not be surprised that it typified decrepitude. The number eight, the double square, was supposed to have some affinity with black. Black is a symbol of envy, for the thoughts which aim at another’s injury cloud the soul and afflict the body. The book of laws treating of dispositions made in view of death was bound in black. The sinister significance of black is well illustrated by what is told of the ruthless Tartar Tamerlane. When he attacked a city, he caused a white tent to be pitched for himself on the first day of the siege, as a sign that mercy would be shown to the inhabitants if they immediately surrendered; on the second day a red tent was substituted, signifying that if the city yielded, all the leaders would be put to death; on the third day, however, a black tent was raised, an ominous signal that no mercy would be shown and that all the inhabitants would be slaughtered.

Violet for a man denoted sober judgment, industry, and gravity; for a woman, high thoughts and religious love. It was the color of the planet Jupiter and of Thursday. As with blue, the sapphire was conceived to present violet most attractively. That the bull should be selected as the animal represented by this color probably arose from some mythological connection with Jupiter, possibly the myth of Europa and the bull. Violet was the color of old age and was associated with the number three.

The influence of color upon the nerves has been noted by some of the leading authorities on hypnotism. For example, Dr. Paul Ferez, finding that red light is stimulating and blue-violet calming, suggests that those who treat patients by means of hypnotism should have two rooms for their reception. In one of these rooms the curtains, wall-paper, chair-coverings, etc., would be red, while in the other they would be of a violet-blue hue. Those suffering from a lack of will-power or from lassitude and depression are to be received in the red room, and those who are a prey to over-excitability are introduced into the blue room. Moreover, according to Dr. Ferez, the sedative qualities of the violet-blue can be utilized in inducing the hypnotic state. For this purpose he recommends a violet-blue disk, which is to be rotated rapidly before the eyes of the patient, the movement serving to attract and hold his gaze better than any immovable object would do.15

Red stones such as rubies, carbuncles, and garnets, whose color suggested that of blood, were not only believed to confer invulnerability from wounds, but some Asiatic tribes have used garnets as bullets, upon the contrary principle that this blood-colored stone would inflict a more deadly wound than would a leaden bullet. Such bullets were used by the rebellious Hanzas, in 1892, during their hostilities with the British troops on the Kashmir frontier, and many of these precious missiles were preserved as curiosities.

In his “Colloquy on Pilgrimages,” Erasmus makes one of the speakers ask, “Dost thou not see how the artificer Nature delights to represent all things by colors and forms, but more especially in gems?” He then proceeds to enumerate the various images of natural objects in stones. In the ceraunia appeared the thunder-bolt; in the pyrope, living fire; the chalazia (rock-crystal) preserved the form and coldness of the hailstone even if cast into the fire. In the emerald were shown the deep and translucent waves of the sea; the carcinia imitated the form of crabs; the echites, of vipers; the hieracites, of hawks; the geranites, of cranes. The ætites offered the image of an eagle with a white tail; the taos had the form of a peacock; the chelonites, of an asp; while the myrmecites bore within the figure of an ant.16 The stones bearing this latter name were probably specimens of amber containing ants.

The Greek names of these stones enumerated by Erasmus signify their real or supposed resemblance to certain natural objects, or to something characteristic of such objects. Many of them were fossils, preserving the form of some living organism; a few were entirely fabulous; still others owed their names to some legend or myth illustrating their fancied therapeutic virtues, as in the case of the ætites (eagle-stone) said to be found in the eagle’s nest. Evidently this was a quartz pebble.

The oldest magic formulas that have been preserved for us are those of the Sumerians, the founders of the ancient civilization of Babylonia. Some of them contain references to the use of precious stones as amulets, as appears in the following specimen:

A curious Babylonian mythological text represents the solar deity Ninib, the son of Bel, as determining the fate of various stones by pronouncing a blessing or a curse upon them. For instance, the dolomite was blessed and declared to be fit material for the statues of kings, while a substance called the elu stone was cursed, proclaimed to be unfit for working, and doomed to disintegration. Alabaster was favored by the god, but chalcedony aroused his anger and was condemned.18

In these Sumero-Assyrian inscriptions, there is also mention of two stones, the aban râme and the aban la râme, the “Stone of Love” and the “Stone of Hate” (lit. “non-love”).19 Evidently these stones were believed to excite one or other of these contradictory passions in the hearts of the wearers, and they may be compared with the stones of memory and forgetfulness in the “Gesta Romanorum.”

In an ancient Egyptian burial-place at Shêch Abd el-Qurna, excavated by Passalaqua, was found the mummy of a young woman. Not only was it evident from the rich ornaments adorning the body that she had been of noble birth, but it was also apparent that she must have been exceedingly beautiful in form and feature, and must have died in the flower of her age. The hair was artistically braided and adorned with twenty bronze hairpins. About her neck was a remarkably beautiful necklace composed of four rows of beads with numerous pendants representing divinities and sacred symbols. There were also two smaller necklaces with beads of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian; two large jewelled ear-rings hung from her ears, and on the index-finger of her right hand was a ring set with a scarab; a gold belt garnished with lapis-lazuli and carnelians was bound about her waist and a gold bracelet adorned with semi-precious stones encircled her left wrist. In the sarcophagus was a beautiful mirror of golden-yellow bronze, and three alabaster vases, one still containing some balm or perfume, and another some galena (native lead sulphide) to be used as a cosmetic for the eyes, as well as a little ebony pencil for its application. All these objects are now in the Egyptian collection of the Berlin Museum, and they probably belong to the period of the XVIII Dynasty, about 1500 B.C.

The principal necklace was undoubtedly regarded by the fair Egyptian as an amulet of great power, but it failed to protect her from an untimely end; perhaps, however, its virtues may have aided her soul in its passage through the trials and tests imposed in the underworld. Of the numerous pendants which lent to the necklace its peculiar quality as an amulet, three, in carnelian, figure the god Bes; seven, also in carnelian, the hippopotamus-goddess Toeris, of whom there are besides two representations in lapis-lazuli; then we have a heart of lapis-lazuli; a cat of lapis-lazuli; four falcons of carnelian; one crocodile of carnelian and two of lapis-lazuli; four fish of carnelian, as well as two others of a blackish-white and of a green stone, respectively, and two scorpions of carnelian, and seven flower-forms of the same stone. The greater part of the beads in this necklace are of annular form, of gold, electrum, ivory, or lapis-lazuli; there are a few larger annular or spherical beads of carnelian, chrysoprase, and malachite, and measuring up to 3.5 cm. in diameter.20

A necklace, from the time of the Old Empire (c. 3500 B.C.), and having for its chief adornment a turquoise pendant rudely fashioned into the form of an ibex, was found by the German Orient-Gesellschaft at Abusîr el-Meleq in 1905. This necklace, the parts of which were found about the neck of a body, presumably that of a young man, was composed of rounded and annular beads of carnelian and shell, as well as of flat, perforated fragments of turquoise and almandine garnet and an approximately lozenge-shaped bead of amethyst 1.7 cm. long and 1.4 cm. broad. The chief ornament was the turquoise ibex 1.7 cm. in length and 0.9 cm. high.21 This figure suggests a comparison with the animal and bird forms fashioned out of turquoise that have been found in Indian graves in Arizona and New Mexico, and it probably had the quality of a fetich, or at least of a talisman, intended to guard the wearer of the necklace from harm.

That there was in Egypt a strong inclination to use a certain particular stone for a given amulet, will be noted in the case of those inscribed with special chapters of the Book of the Dead. This is also true of amulets of certain forms. For instance, the head-rest amulet is usually of hematite as is also the carpenter’s square. Of the heart amulets, numbering 47 in the rich collections of the Cairo Museum, nine are of carnelian, four of hematite, two of lapis-lazuli, and two each of green porphyry and green jasper, carnelian being thus the most favored among the more precious materials. Amulets of animal form are plentifully represented in this collection, figuring a large variety of members of the animal kingdom such as the hippopotamus, crocodile, lion, bull, cow, hare, dog-headed ape, cat, dog (somewhat doubtful), jackal, hedgehog, frog, hawk, cobra and fishes, to which list may be added a four-headed ram and a ram-headed sphinx.22

One of the special uses of amulets was for seafaring people, for, in ancient times especially, all who went down to the sea in ships were greatly in need of protection from the fury of the elements when they embarked in their small sailing-vessels. A fragment of a Greek Lapidary,23 probably written in the third or fourth century of our era, gives a list of seven amulets peculiarly adapted for this purpose. The number might suggest a connection with the days of the week, and the amulets were perhaps regarded as most efficacious when used on the respective days.

In the first were set a carbuncle and a chalcedony; this amulet protected sailors from drowning. The second had for its gem either of two varieties of the adamas,—one, the Macedonian, being likened to ice (this was probably rock-crystal), while the other, the Indian, of a silvery hue, may possibly have been our corundum; however, the Macedonian stone was regarded as the better. The third amulet bore the beryl, “transparent, brilliant, and of a sea-green hue,” evidently the aquamarine beryl; this banished fear. The fourth had for its gem the druops, “white in the centre,” probably the variety of agate so much favored as a protector against the spell of the Evil Eye. A coral was placed in the fifth amulet, and this was to be attached to the prow of the ship with strips of seal-skin; it guarded the vessel from winds and waves in all waters. For the sixth amulet the ophiokiolus stone was selected, most probably a kind of banded agate, for it is said to have been girdled with stripes like the body of a snake; whoever wore this had no need to fear the surging ocean. The seventh and last of these nautical amulets bore a stone called opsianos, apparently a resinous or bituminous material, possibly a kind of jet; this came from Phrygia and Galatia, and the amulet wherein it was set was a great protection for all who journeyed by sea or by river.

The ancient treatises on the magic art show that the use of amulets was considered to be indispensable for those who dared to evoke the dark spirits of the nether-world, for without the protection afforded by his amulet the magician ran the risk of being attacked by these spirits. One of these texts gives directions for preparing an amulet, or phylacterion, for the “undertaking”; for this a “sweet-smelling” loadstone should be chosen, and should be cut heart-shaped and engraved with the figure of Hecate.24

A costly Chinese amulet consists of the diamond, the ruby, and the emerald, to which are added the pearl and coral; Oriental sapphire and topaz are classed with the ruby. An amulet containing these five substances is thought to combine the protecting influences of the different deities presiding over them, and is supposed to lengthen the wearer’s life. Sometimes these five princely gems are wrapped up in a paper bearing the names of the respective divinities, to which is added the name of the moon, and those of the twenty-seven constellations, or houses of the moon. Such an amulet, suspended at the entrance of a house, is believed to afford protection to the inmates.25

In the language of the ancient Mexicans blood was called chalchiuhatl, or “water of precious stones,” as the quintessence of what were regarded as the most costly things.26 Although such poetic designations are in modern times mere figures of speech, among primitive peoples they are more significant, and it is highly probable that with the Aztecs, as with other peoples, the wearing of precious stones was believed to enrich the blood and thus to promote health and vigor, for “the blood is the life.”

That gems had sex is asserted by the earliest writers as well as by many of those of a later date. While this must usually be understood as a poetic way of indicating a difference in shade, the darker varieties being regarded as male and the lighter ones as female, Theophrastus, the earliest Greek writer on precious stones, clearly shows that this sexual distinction was sometimes seriously made, for he declares that, wonderful as it might seem, certain gems were capable of producing offspring.

This strange idea was still prevalent in the sixteenth century, and ingenious explanations were sometimes given of the cause of this phenomenon, as appears in the following account by Rueus of germinating diamonds:27

It has recently been related to me by a lady worthy of credence, that a noblewoman, descended from the illustrious house of Luxemburg, had in her possession two diamonds which she had inherited, and which produced others in such miraculous wise, that whoever examined them at stated intervals judged that they had engendered progeny like themselves. The cause of this (if it be permissible to philosophize regarding such a strange matter) would seem to be that the celestial energy in the parent stones, qualified by some one as “vis adamantifica,” first changes the surrounding air into water, or some similar substance, and then condenses and hardens this into the diamond gem.

The pearl-fishers of Borneo are said to preserve carefully every ninth pearl they find, and place them in a bottle with two grains of rice for each pearl, believing, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that these particular pearls have the power to engender and breed others. Custom and superstition require that each bottle shall have the finger of a dead man as a stopper.

At an early date the Christian Church registered its opposition to the practice of wearing amulets. At the Council of Laodicea, held in 355 A.D., it was decreed, in the thirty-fourth canon, that priests and clerks must be neither enchanters, mathematicians, nor astrologers, and that they must not make “what are called amulets,” for these were fetters of the soul, and all who wore them should be cast out of the church.28 This emphatic condemnation of the prevailing usage was not so much a protest against superstition per se as against pagan superstition, for almost if not all the amulets in use in the early centuries of our era bore heathen or heretical symbols or inscriptions. In later times the invincible tendency to wear objects of this character found expression in the use of those associated with Christian belief, such, for instance, as relics of the saints, medallions blessed by the priest, etc.

The amulets of the Jews differed in many respects from those used by Christians. The Mosaic prohibition of representations of human or animal forms imposed great restrictions upon the employment of engraved gems, and the Jew was only permitted to wear or carry those bearing merely characters of mystic or symbolic significance. In talmudic times amulets were sometimes hidden in a hollow staff, and they were believed to have more power when concealed from view in this way. They were like concealed weapons, and it was said that, as a father might give such an amulet to a son, so God had given the Law to Israel for its protection.29

In the Old French didactic poem, the Roman de la Rose, composed in the twelfth century, appear traces of the belief in the magic properties of precious stones. Chaucer translated this poem into English in the fourteenth century and we quote the following lines from his version. They describe the costume of the symbolical figure, Riches.