Daughter. Thy love, my mother, better far than charm,
Shall shield thy child—and yet this wondrous gem[209]
Looks as though some strange influence it had won
From the bright skies—for every rainbow hue
Shoots quivering through its depths in changeful gleams,
Like the mild lightnings of a summer eve.
Mother. Even so doth love pervade a mother’s heart;
Thus, ever active, looks through her fond eyes.[210]
THERE can be little doubt that much of the modern superstition regarding the supposed unlucky quality of the opal owes its origin to a careless reading of Sir Walter Scott’s novel, “Anne of Geierstein.”[211] The wonderful tale therein related of the Lady Hermione, a sort of enchanted princess, who came no one knew whence and always wore a dazzling opal in her hair, contains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to represent the opal as unlucky. Lady Hermione’s gem was an enchanted stone just as its owner was a product of enchantment, and its peculiarities depended entirely upon its mysterious character, which might equally well have been attributed to a diamond, a ruby, or a sapphire. The life of the stone was bound up with the life of Hermione; it sparkled when she was gay, it shot out red gleams when she was angry; and when a few drops of holy water were sprinkled over it, they quenched its radiance. Hermione fell into a swoon, was carried to her chamber, and the next day nothing but a small heap of ashes remained on the bed whereon she had been laid. The spell was broken and the enchantment dissolved. All that can have determined the selection of the opal rather than any other precious stone is the fact of its wonderful play of color and its sensitiveness to moisture. Hence we are perfectly justified in returning to the older belief of the manifold virtues of the opal, only remembering that this gem is a little more fragile than many others and should be more carefully handled and guarded.
The opal, October’s gem, recalls in its wonderful and varied play of color the glories of a bright October day in the country, when earth and sky vie with each other in brilliancy and the eye is fairly dazzled with the bewildering variety of color.