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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1896.
and makes it wise. The jacinth gives sleep and scares thunder, plagae and evil spirits.63 Cardan's own big hyacinth did not bring sleep, but then the stone was of a bad colour.54 Jade, the holy stone of China, cures colic and the bite of venomous insects.65 In Burmàh, if poison is laid on a green jade-plate, the plate tarns black.56 According to Pliny (A. D. 70), in the East, the jasper was worn as an amulet.57 In the eleventh century, the green jasper, when strengthened by magic rites and a silver setting, scared the terrors by night.68 Hung round the neck, the jasper resisted sorrow and refreshed the heart. In the seventeenth century, Nicols noted that many attribute power and virtue to cross-white jasper if figures and characters be graven on them.so Jet, according to Bætins (A. D. 520) and Marbodas (A. D. 1070), screens from evil influences, nightly fears, spectres and ghosts. The rosaries of Catholic Saints were made of jet,61 Jet is still used in medicine and magic as a means of fumigation. In the Scottish Highlands, oblong pieces of obsidian, smooth as glass, called amulets of leng, have healing virtues. Till the close of the Middle Ages, green jet or gagatromæus made the wearer invisible. In the eleventh century, heliotrope caused storms, gifted the wearer with prophecy and made him invisible. The magnet tested a wife's faithfulness, helped robbers, and graced the tongue.cs Roman children wore ornaments of molochite, perhaps a green jade, to protect them against evil.67 And this name for keeping evil from the cradles of children was still fresh in eleventh-century Europe. The moon-stone in the sixteenth century gave a knowledge of the fature. The onyx is one of the doubtful guardians. It cured epilepsy, but caused melancholy and strife, and, in the Middle Ages, sent confusing dreams. The opal is also uncertain. From classic times to the seventeenth century the opal was thought to bring every possible good. By a strange freak of fortune, which Mr. Streeter traces to Hermione's opal in Scott's Anne of Gierstein, it is now falsely accused of brin ging ill-luck.71 The lustre of the pearl scares evil spirits. So Bengal virgins wore pearls as a preservative of virtue, that is to scare evil thoughts and wishes.73 The ancient Chinese highly valued the pearl as an amulet.73 Since B. C. 500, the Corean has put in the mouth of his dead boiled panic, three unbored pearls, and a piece of jade. It was as an amulet, or a houser of Hamlet's ill-luck, that the king threw a union or pearl into the cup he drank to Hamlet's better breath.76 In the Middle Ages, in Europe, the ruby guarded against poison, plague, sadness, evil thoughts, and wicked spirits, The ruby kept the wearer in health and cheered his mind. It diminished its light to warn him of danger.76 It scared evil spirits and bad dreams. The Indian and Chinese place-spirit is
03 Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, pp. 30, 141; Dieslafait's Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 49; Fraser': Magazine, May 1856, p. 585.
4 Dieulafait's Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 49.
* Op. cit. p. 179. Chinese officials and their wives wear jade as a badge of rank. Mrs. Gray's Fourteen Months in Canton, p. 126.
16 Advocate of India, 20th October 1886.
67 Emangel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 174; Streeter's Precious stones and Gems, p. 201. One sort of jasper called grammatias was a Gnostic (A. D. 100-300) amulet. King's Antique Gems, p. 19. 68 King's Antique Gems, p. 894
60 Fraser's Magazine, October 1869, p. 481, ** Streeters Preciow Stones and Gems, p. 201.
a King's Antique Gems, p. 406. 61 Op. cit. p. 98.
Clerk's Orsian, Vol. IL p. 151. "King's Antique Gems, p. 420. 65 Op. cit. p. 407.
" Marbodus (A.D. 1070) in King's Antique Geme, p. 402. of Streeter's Precious stones and Gema, p. 208; Marbodus in King'. Antique Gome, p. 415. King in Antique Gema, p. 15, says: "Molochite is not Malachito." The writer in Fraser's Magarine, November, 1856, p. 572, thinks it is.
6 King's Antique Gems, p. 427. Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, pp. 48, 167. Marbodus (A, D. 1070) in King's Antique Goma, p. 897, gives the onyx an entirely evil character.
76 Streeter's Precious stones and Gems, p. 164.
Tl Op. cit. p. 164. Petrus Arlenius (A. D. 1610) describes an opal which forced every one who saw it to love, honour and worship it. King's Antique Gome, p. 423. T3 Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious Stones, p. 195.
** Streeter's Precious stones and Gems, p. 248. 14 Ross' Corea, p. 325.
* Hamlet, Act V. Soene 2. The case is a good instance of the rule that the drinker of a bealth is a soape, taking into himself the ill-luck of the person to whom he drinks. 16 Emanuel's Diamonds and Precious stones, p. 108.
17 Op.cit. p. 80.
