The names of two of these gems, the ḥulalu and the ḥulalini, suggest that they were of similar class. As the fundamental meaning of the root whence the names are formed is “to perforate,” it is barely possible that we have here the long-sought Assyrian designation for the pearl, which was commonly regarded in ancient times as a stone. In Arabic the perforated pearl has a special name to distinguish it from the unperforated, or “virgin pearl.” All we know of the sându is that it must have been a dark-colored stone. The uknû, however, is almost certainly the lapis-lazuli. It is often mentioned in the Tel el Amarna tablets as having been among the gifts sent by the kings of Babylonia and Assyria to the Pharaohs of Egypt, and also by the latter to friendly Asiatic monarchs. Of the sirgarru and dushu stones nothing is known, but the elmêshu, the seventh in the list, was evidently regarded as the most brilliant and splendid of all; indeed, Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch hazards the conjecture that it is the diamond. In any case this stone must have been set in rings and considered very valuable, for in an Assyrian text occurs the following passage: “Like an elmêshu ring may I be precious in thine eyes.”[349] The fact that this stone is described as having “a celestial beauty” might incline us to believe that it was a sapphire.
The idea of this mystic ornament, composed of seven gems, probably originated in Babylonia, where the number seven was looked upon as especially sacred. As we shall see, there is some reason to attribute a Hindu origin to the nine gems, “the covering” of the King of Tyre, enumerated by Ezekiel, while the breastplate on the ephod of the Hebrew high-priest, with its twelve stones, symbolizing the twelve months of the year, appears to be of later date, and seems to belong to the time of the return from the Babylonian Captivity and the building of the second temple. Certainly, the historic and prophetic books of the Old Testament know nothing of it, although the Urim and Thummim are mentioned and the elaborate description given in Exodus is generally regarded by Biblical scholars as belonging to the so-called “Priestly Codex,” the latest part of the Pentateuch, gradually evolved during the Exile and given its final form in the fifth century B.C.
In the very ancient Assyrio-Babylonian epic narrative of the descent of the goddess Ishtar to Hades, the guardian of the infernal regions obliges the goddess to lay aside some part of her clothing and ornaments at each of the seven gates through which she passes. At the fifth, we are told that she stripped off her girdle of aban alâdi, or stones which aided parturition.[350] It has been asserted, and perhaps with some reason, that of the many mineral substances supposed to possess this virtue, jade (nephrite) or jadeite was the earliest known.
The Babylonian legends also tell of trees on which grow precious stones. In the Gilgamesh epic a mystic cedar tree is described. This grew in the Elamite sanctuary of Irnina and was under the guardianship of the Elamite king Humbaba. Of this tree an inscription relates:
It produces samtu-stones as fruit;
Its boughs hang with them, glorious to behold;
The crown of it produces lapis-lazuli;
Its fruit is costly to gaze upon.
Another tree bearing precious stones was seen by the hero Gilgamesh, after he had passed through darkness for the space of twelve hours. This must have been a most resplendent object, to judge from the following description on a cuneiform tablet:[351]
It bore precious stones for fruits;