first adulteration of jasper by tincture was from him, but the glory of this praise, if I be not mistaken, doth even become his shame.” St. Isidore of Seville (16th century) writes of the green jasper as “shining with the greenness of glory,” and this variety—commonly known as bloodstone because it is spotted with red specks resembling drops of blood—is regarded as an essentially religious substance, and is associated with the old Easter ceremonies. There is an old legend, frequently retold, that the green jasper lying at the foot of the Cross at the Crucifixion received the blood drops from the five wounds of the dying Christ, which drops were forever impregnated in the stone. Five is the number which in mystic writings is identified with the planet Mercury, and the significance of the blood of the Son of the Virgin in the stone of the Virgin will be understood by those who search for truth beneath the mantle of parable. Mr. William Jones in “Finger Ring Lore” gives an illustration of a Christian octagonal-shaped ring of the 3rd or 4th century, set with a red jasper in which is cut in intaglio a shepherd and his flocks: the import of this is clear enough. A jasper bust of Christ in which the red spots are so manipulated by the skilful artist as to represent drops of blood is mentioned by Professor James Dana as being in the royal collection at Paris. “Some indeed assert,” writes Claudius Galenus, the famous physician of the second Christian century, “that a virtue such as is possessed by the green jasper which benefits the chest and mouth of the stomach if tied upon it, is inherent in precious stones.... I have had ample experience having made a necklace out of such gems (jaspers), and hung it round the neck, descending so low that the stones might touch the mouth of the stomach, and they appeared to be of no less service than if they had been engraved in the way laid down by King Nechepsos.” This is the famous anodyne necklace so valued, especially in England, and the source of which the distinguished physician Dr. William Cullen ascribes to Galenus. Several books are credited to King Nechepsos (circa 600 B. C.). Galenus alludes to this King’s jasper amulet which took the form of a rayed dragon. This dragon form symbolizes the mystery of the three zodiacal signs—Virgo, Libra and Scorpio—known to students of Rosicrucian philosophy as the Wheel of Ezekiel, and personified in Pallas Athene or Minerva, the embodiment of wisdom, sympathy and strength. Galenus carried as his talismanic gem a jasper engraved with a man carrying a bundle of herbs, as an aid to his judgment in indicating various diseases—a power long ascribed to stones under the celestial Virgo. A similar sigil is given by the ancient Israelitish Rabbi Chael: “A man with broad shoulders and thick loins, standing and holding in his right hand a bundle of herbs engraved on a green jasper is good against fevers and if a physician carries it about with him it will give him skill in