The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-03-25
ORIGIN OF my
LADY'S" JEWELRY
Personal Adornments Were
Objects OF Magic..Es.
thetic Uses.
THE PR,M.T,ves' JEweLRy
Il Consisted of Substances Easily Per.
forated, Such as Shells, Teeth and
Claws Of Animals, Seeds of
Plants, Eetc.1

Boston Transcript: Professor w.
Ridgeway, in a paper on THE Origin
of Jewelry," read before the British
association, said: Personal orna-
ments in civilized countries consist OF
precious stones or limitations OF stones,
pearls (Which are the product of
shells), or shells themselves, amber, jet
and occasionally various other objects,
such as tigers claws, etc. 1t has htth-
srtO ben held that men and women
were led by purely esthettc considera-
tons to adorn themselves with such
objects; but a little research into the
history of such ornaments leads to d
very different conclusion. The fact Is
that mankind was led to wear such
objects by magic rather than by aes-
shettc considerations. The jewelry OF
primitive peoples consisted OF small
stones with natural perforations. e. g.,
silicified spoons or joints of coniferae,.
Or of substances easily perforated. such
as amber. the seeds of plants, shells,
the teeth n laws of animals, bones
Or pieces of bone, pieces OF wood OF
popular kinds.
Later on they learned to bore hard
stones. such as rock crystal. hematite,
agate, garnet. etc, and obtain the met
ais. All people alu for magical pur-
poses small stones of peculiar form
DE- color long before they can wear
them as ornaments; e. g., Australians
and tribes of New Guinea use crystals
.or rain making, although they cannot
bore them. INC it Is a powerful amulet
lin Uganda fastened into leather. Sor-
POWERS in Africa carry a small bag of
pebbles as an important part of their
equipment. So 1t was in Greece. The
crystal was used to light sacrificial
Are, and was so employed in the church
aown to the fifteenth century. The
cvnt Nc ,Jt,1nr tka Atf ,.z-A-
used it largely, piercing it along its
axis after rubbing off the pyramid
points of the crystal, sometimes leav-
ing the natural six sides. or else
grinding it into a complete cylinder.
From this bead came the artificial
Egyptians, from which modern artifi-
cial cylindrical glass beads are de-
scended.
The beryl. a natural %hexagonal prism.
lent itself still more readily to the
same form, e. g. the cylindrical beryl
B%abylonian cylinders found without
any engraving on them on the wrists
IF the cad in early Babylonian graves
had a similar origin. 1t has been uni
yersally held that Babylonian cylin-
aers, Egyptian scarabs and Mycenean
gems were primarily signets; but as
the cylinders are found unengraved,
and as many as 500 scarabs are found,
on one mummy, n as Mycenean
stones are often found without any en-
craving. 1t is clear that the primary
use was not for signets, but for anu
let's. The Orphic Lithica gives a clear
account of the special virtue of each.
stone, and 1t is plain that they acted
chiefly by sympathetic magic, e. g.,
green jasper and the tree agates make
the vegetation grow. etc. The Greeks
and Asiatics used stones primarily as
amulets. e. g., Mithridates had a whole
cabinet Of gems as a%ntidotes to poison.
To enhance the natural power of the
stone a device was cut on it, e. G., the
Arabian cut on a green Jasper, the
special amulet Of the Gnostics. The
use of the stone for sealing was simply
secondary. and may have arisen first
for sacred purposes.