The emblems are thus made out. The hare, rustic head and head of a goat are to be considered as representing the god Pan, and to be a guard against fear and certain sudden terrors called _panics_, which were thought to be occasioned by this god.[172] The cornucopia (erect) is to confirm abundance and happiness. In Memphis a white cock was held to be a sacred animal. He was consecrated to the sun: according to the Egyptians, to Osiris. It was made an emblem of the soul. When Socrates hoped to be able to unite the divinity of his soul with the divinity of the greater world, he ordered a cock to be sacrificed to Æsculapius, as to the physician of souls. This animal was sacrificed to Annubis, who was the sailor’s Mercury. The dolphin, fed from food thrown away by sailors, is to represent those seeming friends who swim with and follow our fortunes until they get depth of water sufficient for themselves. Here the cock, by treading upon a dolphin, with a palm branch over him, represents the power of wisdom in the soul over a feigned or evil friend. We are inclined to present the reader with another of these remarkable combinations, which is said to be an amulet of health.[173] [Illustration: (Amulet of Health)] The bird Ibis appears here as it is seen in the hieroglyphics upon obelisks. It was dedicated to Osiris and Isis, good and salutary genii. This creature treads upon the crocodile, emblematical of Typhon, who was reckoned among the Egyptians as the cause of every evil. The two-headed Janus may signify the power of the sun and of Osiris from east to west in the day and in the night (although it has been questioned whether the faces are not those of Pythagoras and the magician Apollonius). The goat’s head, which also appeared in the last gem, is said to be an amulet of health and intended to have power to defend against evils which malice might work, and such its power is marked by holding in its mouth a monstrous crested dragon allied to hatred and coupled with poisonous qualities and carrying a terrible appearance. § 2. Jasper, set in rings, took the lead of all other precious stones in its supposed healing power; and this power was supposed to be strengthened when combined with silver in preference to gold. Even Galen has recommended a ring with jasper set in it and engraved with the figure of a man wearing a bunch of herbs round the neck. Many of the Gnostic or Basilidian gems, evidently used for magical and talismanic purposes, were of jasper. Rings of this material, and to be used as marriage tokens, are said to be made at Wesingburg, the materials being supplied from the shores of Lake Wetter.[174] Pierre de Boniface, a great alchemist and much versed in magic, who died in 1323, is the reputed author of a manuscript poem on the virtues of gems, of which the celebrated Nostradamus gives the following pretended extract: