Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1885-01-22
RINGS AND THEIR HISTORY.

CaprlcIous as are the freaks of fashion
in dress and personal ornaments, it has
been able to work little change in the
habit Of wearing rings since the world
first took fancy for them. The ma
terial and workmanship alter with the
advance Of art, but the ring itself, from
its regular beauty apart from all super
stitions, sentimental or mystical asso-
Citations, must ever be cherished orna-
ment. Rings have always been the fav-
orites of princes and ladies. The his
tory and poetry Of finger rings are laid
up in numerous learned treatises, which
few people would dream of persuing.
Enduring as the rings are, their antiqu-
ity reaches far beyond the oldest we can
see in museums. The earliest mention
of their use occurs in the book of Gene
sis some 1,727 years B. c., but it is
quite possible that even the mythical
prehistoric man wore ring. We after
ward hear in the sacred records of
Pharaoh's ring, and that used by Darius
at Babylon; and Herodotus tells us the
Babylonians used to wear rings. They
were originally intended strictly for use
as ssignet rings, and not as ornaments, and
their use as such soon spread from the
East into Europe. In the Homeric po-
ems there are no traces of the custom Of
wearing rings, and the earliest
rings used in Greece, about Solon's
time were signet rings for use only.
They soon became fashionable as orna-
ments, however, with precious stones
set and engraved in them, dandies
crowding the fingers with them up to the
nails. The Lacedemonians always wore
iron rings Some among the German
tribes, in the time OF Tacitus, wore rings
OF that metal until they had slain an
enemy in war. AS for the Romans, the
best authorities assert that they received
the fashion Of ring wearing from the
Greeks, but it probably filtered simulta-
neously through to both nations from
the Pelasgians, who in very early time
settled on the coasts Of the Meditera-
neanand kept up friendly intercourse
with the Orientals. The Roman rings
were at first always Of iron and always
strictly for use, but increasing luxury
corrupted this primitive fashion. Still
such men as Marius, and such families
as held ''high toned" principles, never
gave up the iron ring The Roman fast
young men made an improvement in the
Greek profusion by introducing light
rings for summer wear and heavier ones
for the winter. From the rings of the
Roman knights and the officer who had
the care Of the emperor's state signet in
later days, the history of rings comes
down to our time without any other note
worthy remark.
need not speak of the numberless
rings of antiquity which possessed magi-
cal or medicinal virtues in the estimation
Of the credulous; can we not even now
purchase galvanic rings? Nor need l
tell how universally the ring has been
adopted for the symbols Of espousals,
betokening eternity in its figure and the
surprising excellence Of true love in its
material, and how, being worn on the
fourth finger, it thereby $50 the ancients
believed) pressed vein that ran straight
to the heart. It may be noticed in pass
ing from this that much curious learning
attaches itself to the different fingers on
which rings are worn. Originally, SAYS
that arrant gossip Pliny, rings were worn
on the fourth finger, then on the second,
afterward on the last. Our ancestors
who tran wild in the woods, /" seem to
have preferred the fourth finger. The
Monkish verse Miles, 'Mercator, Stultus,
Maritus, Amator," assigns them, count
ing from the thumb, to the soldier, the
merchant, the fool, the husband, the
lover. When it is remembered how
Hannibal carried enough poison in ring
to kill him when tired of life, no one
need suppose that rings which contain
hair perfume or watch or modern dis
coveries.
The mottocs on rings form curious
department Of archaeology. 1t the pres
day, perhaps because we are less senti-
mental than our great-great parents no
one ever thinks of having more than a
few initials engraved within ring; but
during the sixteenth, seventeeth and
eighteenth centuries it was very COM
mon practice to have notices inscribed
within the hoop Of spousal nuptial, or
merely presentation rings. These were
sometimes called gypsy rings" the
East having always been famous for such
amulets. The motto itself was called
the ''posyn or ''chanson.n Numerous
collections of such notices have been
formed at various epochs
Ring poses are neither double or sin
gle The double ones are generally seri-
GUS, such as
'tGod our love continue ever,
That we in heaven may live together
sLet him never take wife,
That viii not love her as his life.n
Single posies are very varied. Here
are two beautiful ones to head our list:
ssGod above, and peace and love-
ssGod and thee, my comfort be"
Several more worth quoting cannot be
classified; will give them all round, as
Perdita distributed flowers to her guests: