What looks most attractive against the dark velvet on a counter may fail to harmonize with golden glinting hair. The size of the earlobe, the figure of the woman, the color of the dress, the activity of the evening, all are factors in determining which jewels one should wear. Jewels have a long history, but always an immediate test of use. In both aspects, they hold an ever present allure. MARIANNE OSTIER [Illustration] PART ONE [Illustration] _Jewels: History, Character, Magic_ CHAPTER 1 _The Story of Jewels_ _The Earliest Uses_ There are as many guesses about the origin of adornment as about the origin of language. The most popular theories might be called the functional, the magical, and the aesthetic. When man first felt cold, says the functional theory—or when he first felt shame and hid his shame with the fig leaf—he had to find some way of fastening his garments. The leaves, the furs, the hides, would slip off unless adequately held together, especially when the man was running in swift hunt, or the woman bending under domestic burdens. The first fastenings were probably strands of vinestalks, lashes of interlaced leaves. Then pins made of long thorns, of wood, or of the bones of animals came into use. Pins of the last sort have been found in prehistoric caves. Naturally, iron, bronze, silver and gold pins followed, as the use of these metals became known. Crude safety pins, in form essentially the same as those we use today, have been unearthed in the most ancient tombs. The transition from bone to metal may be observed in the word _fibula_, the early Latin word for a clasp. For the long outer leg bone is also called the fibula, and it looks like the tongue of a clasp, for which the other bone, the tibia, is the holder. And the word _fibula_ comes from the Latin verb _fivere_, meaning to fasten. On even the earliest pins, however, and especially on the domed backs of safety pins and clasps, there are curious carvings of dots and circles and other forms, which give scope to the second theory of the origin of adornment, the magical. For along with these fasteners are found necklaces of beads and other adornments that served no practical end—except the very important purpose of placating the gods, of warding off evil.