The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-24
ALL JEWELRY ONCE AMULETS.

All jewelry was worn originally as
amulets or connected in some way
with the magical practices and super
stitions of uncivilized progenitors,
says the Chicago Chronicle, according
to Prof. Ridgeway, who recently de-
livered a lecture before the British As
ISOLATION for the Advancement of
Science.
Most people have the idea that the
wearing of jewelry originated in de-
sire to display gems or minerals of
unusual value, the professor said. No
doubt that impulse had it's sinfuence,
but it does not account for the custom
entirely. The wearing of baubles has
also been laid to the score of the van
ity of the fair sex.
The morsel of quartz glittered pref
tily as she passed, it was thought, and
by natural instinct she was moved
to gather it up, to string it upon a
slender strip of hide for necklace.
Small stones of peculiar form, color
or properties were, he says, considered
understanding long before they We're
adopted as ornaments.
In Australia and New Guinea crys-
tails are used for rain-making.< al
though the natives cannot perforate
them for use as ornaments In Ugan-
da these same rock crystals are fast
ened into leather and worn as anu
lets
In Africa the sorcerer carries a
small bag of pebbles as an essential
part of his equipment. Modern cylin-
drical glass beads are descended from
the beryl and quartz crystal. Babylo-
MAN cylinders, Egyptian scarabs and
Mycenaean gems are not, as has been
generally supposed, primarily signets,
but amuletS.
Ancient writings give a clear ac-
count of the special virtue of each
stone, and it is plain that they acted
chiefly by sympathetic magic-that is,
green jasper and tree agates made the
vegetarian grow, etc. Mithridates had
whole cabinet of gems as antidotes
to poison.
To enhance the natural power of the
stone a device was cut on it-that is,
the Abraxas 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.
Cowrie shells are worn as amulets
by the modern savages in Africa.
Similar shells were worn in Strabo's
! time to keep off the evil eye. Red
coral was a potent amulet to the sea-
farer. as it is at the present day in
Mediterranean lands. If powdered it
kept red rust from grain.
Pearls are still potent medicine in
| China Seeds of plants have magic
properties, the banana seed being
especially valued in Uganda. Claws
of lions are such important amulets
in Africa that they are quite general
ly counterfeited.
So with the teeth of jackals, which
| are initiated in wood if the real thing
is not to be had.
When gold first became known it
was regarded exactly as the stones
mentioned above. Thus the Debae, an
Arab tribe which did not work gold.
but had an abundance in their land.
used only the nuggets, stringing them
for necklaces alternately with per-
forated stones.
Magnetic iron and hematite were
particularly priced, the belief being
that the former was endowed with a
| living spirit, it is thus clear that the
use of all objects still employed in
modern jewelry has arisen primarily
| from the magical powers attributed to
them, by which they were thought to
protect the wearer, says the new theo-
| rst.