[Illustration: “PHANTOM CRYSTAL” OF QUARTZ (ROCK-CRYSTAL) MADAGASCAR. In possession of the author.] [Illustration: 1. Rock-crystal, engraved with a map of the world. Russian work. 2, 3. Rock-crystal balls (one elipsoidal) mounted in silver. Probably twelfth or thirteenth century. Used for ornaments and possibly for scrying purposes. Collection of Sir Charles Hercules Read.] VII Religious Uses of Precious Stones, Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian. The use of stones for the decoration of images of the gods, and in religious ceremonies, more especially in those connected with the burial of the dead, can be traced back to a remote antiquity. Indeed, we may regard this religious use of precious or peculiar stones as the natural development of the original idea of their talismanic virtue. If a certain supernatural essence manifested itself in the stone, what more fit object could be imagined for the decoration of statues of the gods, or to bear engraved texts from the sacred writings, and to be placed with the bodies of the dead as “passports” to ensure the safe entry of the souls of the departed into the better land? While this employment of mineral substances for religious purposes is practically universal, the earliest recorded instances come from Egypt, and concern the Egyptian custom of engraving texts from a very ancient ritual composition, called the Book of the Dead, upon certain semi-precious stones which had been cut into various symbolical forms. This “Book of the Dead,” composed of a number of distinct chapters, each complete in itself, describes the passage of the soul of the deceased through the realm of the dead (Amenti). Here the soul addresses the gods and other beings who receive it, and the prayers and invocations recited in the chapters are supposed to procure a safe passage and protection from all evil influences or impediments. One of the most usual of the engraved amulets is the buckle or tie (thet). This was generally of red jasper, carnelian, or red porphyry, or else of red glass or faience or of sycamore wood. The wood was symbolical of the blood of Isis, and the amulets were sometimes engraved with the 156th chapter of the Book of the Dead; they were placed on the mummy’s neck. The formula engraved reads: Chapter of the buckle of carnelian which is put on the neck of the deceased. The blood of Isis, the virtue of Isis; the magic power of Isis, the magic power of the Eye are protecting this the Great one; they prevent any wrong being done to him. This chapter is said on a buckle of carnelian dipped into the juice of ankhama, inlaid into the substance of the sycamore-wood and put on the neck of the deceased. Whoever has this chapter read to him, the virtue of Isis protects him; Horus, the son of Isis, rejoices in seeing him, and no way is barred to him, unfailingly.[338]