Prof. Taw Sein Ko, Superintendent of the Archæological Survey, of Burma; Dr. T. Wada, of Tokyo, Japan; Dr. G. O. Clerc, President of the Société Ouralienne des Amis des Sciences Naturelles, Ekaterinebourg, Russia; Dr. Charles Braddock, late Medical Inspector to the King of Siam; Sir Charles Hercules Reed, Curator of Archæology, and Dr. Ernest A. Wallis Budge, Egyptologist, British Museum, London; A. W. Feavearyear, Esq., London; Dr. Salomon Reinach, Director of the Archaælogical Museum of St. Germain-en-Laye, France; Prof. Giuseppe Belucci, of the University of Perugia; Dr. Peter Jessen, Librarian of the Kunstgewerbe Museum, of Berlin; Miss Belle DaCosta Green; Dr. Frederick Hirth, Chinese Professor, Columbia University, New York; Dr. Clark Wissler, Curator of Archæology, Dr. L. P. Gratacap, Curator of Mineralogy, American Museum of Natural History; Dr. Berthold Laufer, Oriental Archæologist, and Dr. Oliver C. Farrington, Curator of Geology and Mineralogy, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Hereward Carrington, Esq., Psychist, New York; Dr. W. Hayes Ward, Archæologist and Babylonian Scholar; Mrs. Henry Draper, New York; H. W. Kent, Esq., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Consul General Moser, Colombo, Ceylon; W. W. Blake, Mexico City, who has done so much to encourage Mexican archæological investigation; the late A. Damour, of Paris, the great pioneer of mineralogical archæology; the late Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Dresden, who, more than anyone else, proved that the _Nephritfrage_ or the jade question was to be solved by chemical and mineralogical investigation; the late Rajah Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore, of Calcutta; and Dr. A. M. Lythgoe, Egyptologist, Metropolitan Museum of Art. G. F. K. SEPTEMBER, 1913. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I. SUPERSTITIONS AND THEIR SOURCES 1 II. ON THE USE OF PRECIOUS AND SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES AS TALISMANS AND AMULETS 19 III. ON THE TALISMANIC USE OF SPECIAL STONES 51 IV. ON THE USE OF ENGRAVED AND CARVED GEMS AS TALISMANS 115 V. ON OMINOUS AND LUMINOUS STONES 143 VI. ON CRYSTAL BALLS AND CRYSTAL GAZING 176 VII. RELIGIOUS USES OF PRECIOUS STONES, PAGAN, HEBREW, AND CHRISTIAN 225 VIII. ON THE HIGH-PRIEST’S BREASTPLATE 275 IX. BIRTH-STONES 307 X. PLANETARY AND ASTRAL INFLUENCES OF PRECIOUS STONES 338 XI. ON THE THERAPEUTIC USE OF PRECIOUS AND SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES 367 Illustrations COLOR PLATES PAGE