The Curious Lore of Precious Stones: Being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination. Crystal gazing, birth-stones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetaryKunz, George Frederick
Religion
The Curious Lore of Precious Stones: Being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination. Crystal gazing, birth-stones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetary
Kunz, George Frederick
Gems; Gems -- Folklore
In these Sumero-Assyrian inscriptions, there is also mention of two
stones, the _aban râme_ and the _aban la râme_, the “Stone of Love”
and the “Stone of Hate” (lit. “non-love”).[19] Evidently these stones
were believed to excite one or other of these contradictory passions in
the hearts of the wearers, and they may be compared with the stones of
memory and forgetfulness in the “Gesta Romanorum.”
In an ancient Egyptian burial-place at Shêch Abd el-Qurna, excavated
by Passalaqua, was found the mummy of a young woman. Not only was it
evident from the rich ornaments adorning the body that she had been
of noble birth, but it was also apparent that she must have been
exceedingly beautiful in form and feature, and must have died in the
flower of her age. The hair was artistically braided and adorned with
twenty bronze hairpins. About her neck was a remarkably beautiful
necklace composed of four rows of beads with numerous pendants
representing divinities and sacred symbols. There were also two smaller
necklaces with beads of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian; two large
jewelled ear-rings hung from her ears, and on the index-finger of
her right hand was a ring set with a scarab; a gold belt garnished
with lapis-lazuli and carnelians was bound about her waist and a gold
bracelet adorned with semi-precious stones encircled her left wrist.
In the sarcophagus was a beautiful mirror of golden-yellow bronze, and
three alabaster vases, one still containing some balm or perfume, and
another some galena (native lead sulphide) to be used as a cosmetic for
the eyes, as well as a little ebony pencil for its application. All
these objects are now in the Egyptian collection of the Berlin Museum,
and they probably belong to the period of the XVIII Dynasty, about 1500
B.C.
[Illustration: 1. A necklace of rock crystal, emeralds, hexagonal
crystals, and amazon stones; from Egypt.
2. A necklace of onyx and gold beads with the “Lucky Eye” agates; from
Egypt. Carnelian, sard; blue and white, and black and white glass
beads.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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