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Superstitions and Their Sources
FROM the earliest times in man’s history gems and precious stones have been held in great esteem. They have been found in the monuments of prehistoric peoples, and not alone the civilization of the Pharaohs, of the Incas, or of the Montezumas invested these brilliant things from Nature’s jewel casket with a significance beyond the mere suggestion of their intrinsic properties.
The magi, the wise men, the seers, the astrologers of the ages gone by found much in the matter of gems that we have nearly come to forgetting. With them each gem possessed certain planetary attractions peculiar to itself, certain affinities with the various virtues, and a zodiacal concordance with the seasons of the year. Moreover, these early sages were firm believers in the influence of gems in one’s nativity,—that the evil in the world could be kept from contaminating a child properly protected by wearing the appropriate talismanic, natal, and zodiacal gems. Indeed, folklorists are wont to wonder whether the custom of wearing gems in jewelry did not originate in the talismanic idea instead of in the idea of mere additional adornment.
The influence exerted by precious stones was assumed in medieval times without question, but when the spirit of investigation was aroused in the Renaissance period, an effort was made to find a reason of some sort for the traditional beliefs. Strange as it may seem to us, there was little disposition to doubt that the influence existed; this was taken for granted, and all the mental effort expended was devoted to finding some plausible explanation as to how precious stones became endowed with their strange and mystic virtues, and how these virtues acted in modifying the character, health, or fortunes of the wearer.
When the existence of miracles is acknowledged, there will always be a tendency to regard every singular and unaccountable happening as a miracle; that is to say, as something that occurs outside of, or in spite of, the laws of nature. We even observe this tendency at work in our own time. As regards visual impressions, for instance, if a child of lively imagination enters a half-lighted room and sees a bundle of clothes lying in a corner, the indistinct outline of this mass may be transformed to his mind into the form of a wild animal. The child does not really see an animal, but his fear has given a definite outline and character to the indefinite image printed on the retina.
The writer has always sought to investigate anything strange and apparently unaccountable which has been brought to his notice, but he can truly say he has never found the slightest evidence of anything transcending the acknowledged laws of nature. Still, when we consider the marvellous secrets that have been revealed to us by science and the yet more wonderful things that will be revealed to us in the future, we are tempted to think that there may be something in the old beliefs, some residuum of fact, susceptible indeed of explanation, but very different from what a crass scepticism supposes it to be. Above all, the results of the investigations now pursued in relation to the group of phenomena embraced under the designation of telepathy,—the subconscious influence of one mind over an absent or distant mind,—and the wireless transmission of power in wireless telegraphy and telephony, may go far to make us hesitate before condemning as utterly preposterous many of the tales of enchantment and magical influence. If the unconscious will of one individual can affect the thoughts and feelings of another individual at a great distance and without the intervention of any known means of communication, as is confidently asserted by many competent investigators in the domain of telepathy, their claims being supported by many strange happenings, perhaps the result of coincidence, but possibly due to the operation of some unknown law, does this not give a color of verity to the statements regarding the ancient magicians and their spells?
Auto-suggestion may also afford an explanation of much that is mysterious in the effects attributed to precious stones, for if the wearer be firmly convinced that the gem he is wearing produces certain results, this conviction will impress itself upon his thought and hence upon his very organism. He will really experience the influence, and the effects will manifest themselves just as powerfully as though they were caused by vibrations or emanations from the material body of the stone.
All this may serve to explain the persistence of the belief in magic arts. A few hundred years ago, a Hungarian woman was accused of having murdered two or three hundred young girls, and at her trial she confessed that her object was to use the blood of her victims to renew her youth and beauty, for the blood of innocent virgins was supposed to have wonderful properties. In some parts of England today there is a superstitious belief that an article of clothing worn by a person, or anything he has habitually used, absorbs a portion of his individuality. Therefore, it sometimes happens that a handkerchief, for instance, will be stolen and pinned down beneath the waters of a stream on a toad, the pins marking the name of the enemy, the belief being that as this cloth wastes away, so will the body of him who had worn it. In medieval and later times this was the common practice of the sorcerers, although they frequently composed a wax figure rudely resembling the person against whom the spell was directed, and then thrust pins into this figure or allowed it to melt away before a slow fire. The enchantment of the sorcerer was supposed to have caused some essence of the personality to enter into the image, and therefore the living and breathing being felt sympathetically the effects of the ill-treatment inflicted upon its counterfeit.
The persistence of the most cruel and unnatural practices of old-time sorcery is illustrated by the fact that only a few years ago, in the island of Cuba, three women were condemned to death for murdering a white baby so as to use the heart and blood as a cure for diseases. Four other women were sentenced to from fourteen to twenty years’ imprisonment as accomplices. When such things happen in Cuba, it is not surprising that in half-civilized Hayti similar crimes are committed. Here the Voodoo priests and priestesses, papalois and mamalois (papa-kings and mama-queens) require from time to time a human sacrifice to appease their serpent-god. One strange case is related where a stupefying potion, inducing a state of apparent death, was secretly administered to a sick man. When the attending physician pronounced him dead, he was duly interred; but, two days after, the grave was found open and the body had disappeared. The Voodoo worshippers had carried the man away so as to revive him and then sacrifice him at their fearful rites.
In a poem addressed to Marguerite de Valois,—“La Marguerite des Marguerites,” as she was called,—by Jean de la Taille de Bondaroy,[1] we read of the diamond that it came from gold and from the sun. But we are told that not only are precious stones endowed with life, they also are subject to disease, old age, and death; “they even take offence if an injury be done to them, and become rough and pale.” The sickness of the pearl has been a theme for centuries, and in many cases is only fancied. It is but a subterfuge or deception for a lady to remark that her pearls have sickened; by referring to this sickness, her friends are naturally led to believe that at one time her pearls were fine, perfect ones, when in reality they may never have been so.