And the birk and the brume blooms bonnie.
“Oh! the ring it was both black and blue,
With a hey lillelu and a how lo lan;
And she’s either dead or she’s married,
And the birk and the brume blooms bonnie.
“He’s left the seas and he’s come to the land,” etc.
John Sterling, whose life has been written by the Rev. Julius Charles Hare, composed a fiction which is worked up through a supposed talismanic Onyx Ring. The hero had been reading an old book on necromancy; it caused him to long to change his lot; he appears to be able to do this, through the appearance or apparition of an old man. “Would you,” says this figure, in a sweet but melancholy voice, “in truth accept the power of exchanging your own personal existence at pleasure for that of other men?” After a moment’s pause, he answered boldly, “Yes.” “I can bestow the power, but only on these conditions. You will be able to assume a new part in life once in each week. For the one hour after midnight on each Saturday, that is, for the first hour of the new week, you will remember all you have been and whatever characters you may have chosen for yourself. At the end of the hour you may make a new choice; but, if then deferred, it will again be a week before the opportunity will recur. You will also be incapable of revealing to any one the power you are gifted with. And if you once resume your present being, you will never again be able to cast it off. If, on these terms, you agree to my proposal, take this ring and wear it on the forefinger of your right hand. It bears the head of the famous Apollonius of Tyana. If you breathe on it at the appointed hour, you will immediately become any person you may desire to be,” etc. The hero hesitates and says, “Before I assent to your offer, tell me whether you would think me wise to do so.” “Young man, were I to choose again, my choice would be to fill the station where nature brought me forth and where God, therefore, doubtless, designed me to work.” The ring is taken; it is supposed to be at a time when this same hero is in a suspense of love, and he appears successively to take the form of those who are around the maiden of his affections. All this, in fact, is imagined by him while in sickness. He secures his lady love; and sees upon her finger an onyx ring like the one which had appeared to have allowed of his visionary changes. She held up her hand before his face, which his first impulse was to kiss; but he saw that on one of the fingers was an onyx ring. “How on earth did you come by that? It has haunted me as if a magic Ariel were fused amid the gold or imprisoned in the stone.” “I will tell you.” And then the lady, somewhat lamely for the story, informs him how she came into possession of it. The author acted cleverly in coupling Apollonius with this ring: for he is reputed to have been a most potent magician; not only miracles have been imputed to him, but one writer dares to rank him above Jesus in superhuman powers.
§4. Crowned heads have believed in amulets.