The locket and other pendant ornaments must in many, if not all, cases be the descendants of amulets. The Arab women at the present day wear a little metal box containing a written talisman. An ancient Egyptian buried, with his mummies, many amulets and charms so that the soul, in obedience to various precepts, might enter into complete union with Ra, the solar god, and so accompany him on his journey round the world, and secure his everlasting protection.
It is due to these ideas that we owe the beautifully modelled figures of glazed pottery found in the Egyptian tombs. Many of them depict the various gods and goddesses acknowledged in Egypt, and they are usually pierced for attachment to the person. These were also carried on the person during life, and children especially were accustomed to wear them.
Old religious beliefs and superstitions that have not yet died out, have elsewhere given rise to the wearing of charms, and it is interesting to note that flint arrow-heads, under the name of “elves’ arrows,” were made into pendants by races who had reached the metal stage of culture.
Precious stones, upon which a word may be said here, no doubt at first were prized for their beauty alone, and then imagination gradually endowed many of them with fictitious properties and virtues, though doubtless the supposed attributes of some and the value and beauty of others have kept many precious stones in favour until the present day. Fashion is now particularly fickle as regards them, and craftsmen who deal with gems, feel her decrees[12] more keenly perhaps than any one else. Some half-dozen kinds of stones—such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, and turquoises—never go completely out of fashion, but even among these, one or other becomes paramount from time to time.
The topaz and chrysolite were reported to lose their brilliancy when placed in liquid that contains poison. To the amethyst was attributed the power of warding off the effects of drunkenness. The diamond, it was believed, gave to the wearers magnanimity, virtue, and courage. The ancients supposed that the opal shared the charm of every stone of which it reflected the colour, but when it was stolen, the thief became invisible, and was allowed to escape scot free. Mr. Claremont[13] has made an interesting suggestion as to the reason why the opal has been considered unlucky. The notion, he says, is not nearly so ancient as many of the superstitions relating to other stones, and probably does not date further back than the Middle Ages. The old name “ophal” was used as late as the time of Queen Elizabeth, and came from the Greek for “eye”-stone, and as eyes are unlucky even in peacocks’ feathers, perhaps the explanation of the superstition lies in the name of the stone.
Such walking-sticks as those garnished with “sylver” and “golde,” which are described as being at the Royal Palace at Greenwich in the reign of Henry VIII, may well be considered as ornaments. The same may be said of the be-ribboned canes of the exquisites of Charles II’s and later times. We mention them because, within the last two or three years, there has been a talk of seeing “the nice conduct of a clouded cane” more generally considered, and some men have appeared at the theatre with long, gold-knobbed and tasselled canes.
The buckle, which may be ornamental or useful, or both, is well worthy of our attention. It consists in its simple form of a ring and a pin, and the latter is hinged on to the former. It is, in fact, much like a brooch, but without a hasp, and used in a different way. There are brooches, however, at the present day, which are even simpler in construction than the buckle, and they are used[14] even now by blacksmiths in Kirkudbrightshire, in the form of the iron ring and a horseshoe nail, with which they fasten their aprons. Similar pin-ring brooches were used in Ireland until quite recently and are known from early times. Mr. Edward Lovett[15] thinks that such a fastening may well have been derived from two bones of the sheep or deer, the garment being pulled through the ring formed by half the hip girdle, and speared through with the pointed heel bone.
A still more primitive pin was no doubt a thorn, and fish-hooks are to this day used on the coasts of Essex, which are made from the same natural object.