The Curious Lore of Precious Stones

Talismans and birth-stones, crystal balls and the High Priest's breastplate — Tiffany's own gem expert gathered every superstition, legend and cure ever credited to a precious stone.

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian

27 pages in this part of The Curious Lore of Precious Stones.

Religious Uses: 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…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Budge

Another amulet is the tet. The hieroglyph represents a mason's table and the word signifies "firmness, stability, preservation." These…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Osiris

Rise up from non-existence, O prostrate one! They watch over thy head at the exalted horizon. Thou overthrowest thine enemies; thou…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Babylonian

The Babylonian legends also tell of trees on which grow precious stones. In the Gilgamesh epic a mystic cedar tree is described. This grew…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Adad

While the characters are clearly cut and can be easily deciphered, the inscription is nevertheless exceedingly difficult to translate. It…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Questions

It is not only in the works of the Fathers of the Christian Church that we find precious stones used as similes of religious virtue, in…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Bhikshu

And again, O King, as the diamond cannot be alloyed with other substance; just so, O King, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Revelations

Let the pure associate with the pure, Ever in recollection firm; Dwelling harmoniously wise, Thus shall ye put an end to griefs. The…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Hindu

As compared with the description in Revelations we cannot fail to note the lack of definiteness. Instead of the well-ordered scheme of…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Chinese

As engraved decoration of a fine Chinese vase of white jade with delicate crown markings, appear eight storks, each of which bears in its…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Mercury

From this description we learn that the jewel was designed to combine all the powerful astrological influences. The gems chosen to…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Yakut

NINE GEMS. English Sanskrit Burmese Chinese (Canton) Arabic Diamond Vajra Chein Chun-syak Mas Ruby Manikya Budmiya Se-fla-yu-syak Yakut…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Mexico

The greater number of ancient Mexican jadeite beads appear to have been rounded pebbles of this material, assorted as to size and drilled…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Indians

Rock-crystal is included among the various objects used as fetiches by the Cherokee Indians. This stone is believed to have great power to…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Greek

The knowledge of classical mythology was so slight among the ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages that some very queer attributions of the…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Sylvester

The St. Sylvester or St. James stone is a banded agate in two colors, the one dark and the other light, with a cat's-eye effect so that…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Sacro

The famous "Sacro Catino" preserved in Genoa was long believed to be made of a single immense emerald, but careful investigation proved…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Genoese

A queer story has been told regarding the Genoese emerald. At one time when the government was hard pressed for money, the Sacro Catino was…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Agricola

Among the celebrated emeralds noted by George Agricola (Agricolae, "De natura fossilium," lib. vi, Basileae, 1546.) (1490-1555) was a large…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Cathedral

One of the most renowned emeralds in the world surmounted the eleborately jewelled imperial crown that was placed upon the head of the…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: French

If we are to believe the following anecdote, the emerald disappeared at an earlier date: It is said that in 1809, during the French…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Whitby

The monastery of Streoneshalh, later Whitby Abbey, was founded about 656 A.D. by Oswy, King of Northumbria, in fulfilment of a vow made…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Italy

In the sixteenth century jet was popularly called "black amber," and Cardano states that in his time beads of this material were made up…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Baelz

Certain curious amulets called magatama (crooked jewels) have been found in Japanese graves of the iron age; (Dr. Baelz, of the Imperial…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Gonzalez

Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, who travelled in the East during the years 1403-1406, gives a description of a slab of stone bearing the outlines…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: England

In some epitaphs the hope of the resurrection finds expression in likening the body enclosed in its narrow coffin to a precious jewel in…

Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: Sundays

GREEN is the canonical color for use on Sundays, week-days, and ordinary festivals. Hope and joy and the bright promises of youth are…

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