NECKLACES, CHAINS, AND AMULETS. THE antiquity of most articles of personal adornment is indisputable. From the pyramids of Egypt, the tombs of Pompeii, and the resuscitated dwellings of Nineveh, we recover, every now and then, a little gold ornament, or part of a bronze, or a jewel curiously set,-and straightway we have evidence of luxury and refinement which existed in the world whole centuries ago. It is not difficult to imagine that the use of metallic ornaments, and other adornments of the person, not immediately coming under the designation of clothing, was in use from a very early period indeed, because vanity and the love of admiration are human failings, and because-as it is no great heresy to believe-beauty has never been above borrowing a grace from art, however homely. All our experiences of human nature evidence the same fact. Whenever the navigator plants his foot upon a hitherto-unvisited shore, he finds the natives, even though they be naked savages, adorned in some or other way indicative of their rank, or power, or age, or sex; and coloured beads, bits of bright metal, and even feathers do the first offices of commerce. It will not, however, be necessary to pursue this train o reflection, our proper business, just now, being with necklaces, chains, and amulets, concerning the past and present of which articles of luxury we mean-either with or without the reader's kind permission--to indulge in a little gossip. To begin at the beginning. If we would know who were the first makers and wearers of chains and necklaces, we must go back to old Egypt-the mother of the arts. From whatever part of the world the ancients obtained their gold, it is certain that they possessed it,-and in good quantities, too, if the thick plating of the precious metal on the inner coffins of the embalmed Egyptians, and the great variety of rings, necklaces, brooches, and other articles of jewellery, be any evidence. It is astonishing, too, to find that our most modern and fashionable shapes and patterns for such articles are but adaptations of the forms in use among the fair ladies of Egypt three thousand years ago! From the Egyptians, the Hebrews are by many supposed to have obtained their knowledge of jewellery; but it would appear that certain such articles were in use before they had any intercourse with the Egyptians. When Eliezer, the steward of Abraham's household, was sent into Mesopotamia, to bring home a wife for Isaac, he was furnished with suitable presents; and we read that when he met Rachael, and had been kindly furnished by her with water for himself and his camels, that he "took a golden ear-ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold," and presented them to her. Nor was the use of rings and bracelets confined to females, for in Gen. xxxviii. 18, we find that a signet and bracelets were worn by Judah, one of the sons of Jacob. It appears that chains of gold were the insignia of power and authority among the Jews, just as it is with our mayors, high bailiffs, and other corporate officers in the present day. We learn from the Scriptures, that a chain of gold was part of the dress of honour at Babylon; and that chains or necklaces were worn by both men and women appears from a passage in Proverbs—“ an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck;" and another in Ezekiel," I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck; and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and ear-rings in thine ears, &c.,"- -as well as from various other texts. But the earliest mention of gold chains is that in Gen. xli. 42, where we learn that Pharaoh, to show his respect for Joseph, when he invested him with power in Egypt, took a ring from his finger, and a gold chain from his neck, and put them upon the hand and person of the Israelite. Dr. Kitto tells us that chains of gold, to which were attached jewelled figures of Shemei, or Truth, were worn by the judges of Egypt; and that women also wore ornaments of the same character, as we have mentioned above. The doctor does not, however, suppose that the Hebrews necessarily obtained their knowledge of this form of jewellery from the Egyptians, because chains of gold were found among the spoils taken from the Midianites, a people whose condition of life more nearly resembled that of the Israelites before they obtained possession of Canaan. However the fact may be, it appears tolerably certain that the Greeks and Romans were, directly or indirectly, indebted to Egypt for their knowledge of ornamental jewellery-and so, of course, of chains and necklaces, -which are now worn as marks of distinction by the people of various nations, the Persians, Chinese, &c. Of course, the word chain (in French, chaine; in Italian, catena; and in Spanish cadena ;) has another and less pleasant meaning; though whether chains were first used to bind the bodies of prisoners, or adorn the persons of the great and noble, we cannot certainly say. As, however, revenge and abuse of power are even stronger motives than vanity and self-love, the probability is that the iron chain was used before the gold one. A curious instance either of the carelessness of translators or printers occurs in the Bible of 1551, in which the word chain is spelt in three different ways in a single sentence: "Whych [man] had his abydyng among ye graues, and no man could bynde him; no not with cheines; yt whe he was bound wt fetters and cheynes, he plucked the chaines asunder and broke the fetters in peces." The passage is taken from the fifth chapter of St. Mark. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the use of chains, necklaces, amulets, bracelets, rings, and other such articles of luxury, was as common as with us. Homer mentions the golden ornaments of Helen; and the jewels belonging to Aspasia and Cleopatra are said to have been of the most costly description-"the ransom of kings!" Our readers are of course acquainted with numerous passages telling how Xerxes brought with him to Europe from Persia chains of iron to bind the captive Greeks, and chains of gold wherewith to deck the victors; how the Gothic and barbaric tribes of Germany delighted in arraying themselves in golden chains and necklaces of precious stones, the spoils of war; how the ancient Gauls made the gold chain the symbol of power among them; and how even the rudest and simplest natives of Britain were found by Caesar with pictures of animals painted on their bodies, and chains of twisted fibres round their necks! That gold chains and necklaces have ever since then been popular among us, we have the evidence of the poets-the best historians after all. Chaucer says, in the "Monk's Tale," verse 14,362:- "Beform his triumphe walketh she [Zenobia] and Ben Jonson, in one of his comedies-we forget which, --thus describes the dress of a fine gentleman : "I would put on The Savoy chain about my neck, the ruff, no fewer than eight countries contributing to the beau's attire. And so we might go on, but that we do not see exactly where we should stop. We must, therefore, curb our rapid pen and fancy at the same moment; and, remembering that we have placed the word amulets at the head of the paper, proceed to say a word or two about them. But first, a few sentences about modern chains and necklaces. The invention of the curious piece of ornamental work which we call a gold chain is probably English; and even now articles of this description are called English chains on the continent, though they are made in great numbers in Paris of gold, silver, and inferior metals. Everybody knows how they are made, by rolling, stamping, wirc-drawing, hammering, filing, soldering, burnishing, polishing, and so on,-with sometimes as many as four or five thousand separate pieces in a single necklace! Ornaments of this kind are generally made in fine gold-that is to say, gold with a sufficient degree of alloy to give it hardness. A very curious set of terms are used in designating the quality of gold coin and jewellery. Absolutely pure gold would be much too soft to bear the rough usage to which coins are exposed, and so a small portion of alloy is added to give it tenacity. The legal English standard for coin is expressed by the fractions or, or more usually by the term twenty-two carats fine-that is to say, that two carats out of the pound troy are alloy. The standard value of gold, as purchased by the Bank of England, is £3 17s. 9d. per ounce, and it is issued again from that establishment at £3 17s. 10 d. per ounce of twenty-two carats fine--actually pure, unalloyed gold being worth about £4 per ounce. The alloy used is either of silver or copper, the former giving the gold a lighter and the latter a redder colour. For almost all manufacturing purposes a considerable quantity of alloy is employed-in what is called jeweller's fine gold as much as one-third part, or sixteen carats fine, is the usual proportion. But the gold of which jewellery is composed may, and does, consist of nearly all degrees of fineness from eighteen carats, or one-fourth alloy, to an almost indefinite quantity, according to the price of article required, its cheapness, &c. "Jewellers' gold," as it is called, of which nearly all chains, necklaces, and such-like ornaments are manufactured, varies from about 8 to 16 dollars per ounce. Trinkets are very frequently made of inferior metal plated over with gold, either by the old method or by the electro process. Of the various and numerous ornamental purposes for which gold is used, only a jeweller, or a lady's-maid, or perhaps a very fine gentleman, could give anything like a complete catalogue. And when we try to remember a few of the names of these little articles-rings, and chains, and charms, and bracelets, and brooches, and seals, and eye-glasses, and combs, and armlets, and pins, and buttons, and shirt-studs, and pencilcases, to say nothing of plate, watches, and the larger kinds of presentation vases in silver-gilt;-when we consider the cost, trouble, and anxiety of bringing all this precious metal from its home in the quartz rocks in Russia, California, and Australia, to its sometimes brilliant resting-place on the neck or arm of beauty, or its no less honourable employment in enclosing a ticking monitor of wasted or well-spent hourscannot help regarding the "yellow dross" as one of the most powerful and potent of metals, all that is said to the contrary otwithstanding. "Dig for the gold! Prosper the arm that doth urge its might To win repose when youth is o'er; Turn up the earth for the metal bright For sire and dame on a far-off shore. we Our space will allow us to say but very few words of charms and amulets. In the earliest times, superstitious folk have been fond of arming themselves with certain protections against "spells, witchcrafts, distempers, and the powers of the evil eye." Sometimes the amulet or charm has consisted of a little metal trinket, worn round the neck or wrist; sometimes it has been used for the religious purposes, and has consisted of texts from the law written on plates of metal and affixed to the doors of houses and places of worship; again it has been a curious sentence, like the abracadabra, which was written on a piece of vellum and worn about the person; at another time it was a string of beads made of the briony root, christened by the name of the Anodyne Necklace, and said to assist children in teething; and, even in the present age of refinement and knowledge, it is still preserved in the child's caul which sailors take to sea with them, and cherished by fond mothers in the row of coral beads which, when worn round the neck of some darling child, predicts its coming illness by losing colour and polish! In the rural districts of England, and in many places in our own country, the simple peasantry still believe in the efficacy of charms. The following are a few of the "charms" current as cures for various ailments. The established formula consists in the charmer's crossing the part affected, and whispering on it certain mysterious words :: WARTS.-Take one of the large black snails which are to be found during summer in every hedgerow, rub it over the wart, and then hang it on a thorn. This must be done nine nights successively, at the end of which time the wart will completely disappear. For as the snail, exposed to such cruel treatment, will gradually wither away, so it is believed the wart, being impregnated with its matter, will slowly do the same. WENS.-After a criminal is dead, but still hanging, his hand must be rubbed thrice over the wen. (Vide "Brand," vol. iii. p. 153.) Many persons are still living who in their younger days have undergone the ceremony, always, they say, attended with complete success. On execution days at Northampton, numbers of sufferers used to congregate round the gallows, in order to receive the "dead stroke," as it is termed. At the last execution which took place in that town, a very few only were operated upon, not so much in consequence of decrease of faith, as from the higher fee demanded by the hangman. EPISTAXIS.--For stopping or preventing bleeding at the nose, a toad is killed by transfixing it with some sharp pointed instrument, after which it is inclosed in a little bag, and suspended round the neck. The same charm is also occasionally used in cases of fever. The following passage from Sir K. Digby's "Discourse on Sympathy" (London, 1658), may enlighten us as to the principle:-"In time of common contagion, they use to carry about them the powder of a toad, and sometimes a living toad or spider shut up in a box; or else they carry arsnick, or some other venemous substance, which draws unto it the contagious air, which otherwise would infect the party." p. 77. ANOTHER FOR THE SAME.-If it be a man who suffers, he asks a female to buy him a lace (if a female she asks a man), without either giving money, saying what it is wanted for, or returning thanks when received. The lace so obtained must be worn round the neck for the space of nine days; at the expiration of which, it is said, the patient will experience no return of the disorder. CRAMP. The populace still retain such a high sense of the efficacy of the form of the cross, that in case of spasms, or that painful state of the feet in which they are said to "sleep," it is commonly used, under the impression that it mitigates, if not entirely allays, the pain. Warts are also charmed away by crossing them with elder sticks: and a very common charm for the cramp consists in the sufferer's always taking care, when he pulls off his shoes and stockings, to place them in such a position as to form a resemblance to the "holy sign." Another and very common charm resorted to for the cure of this painful disorder, consists in the wearing about the person the patella of a sheep or lamb, known as the "cramp-bone." This is worn as near the skin as possible, and at night is laid under the pillow. WEST. In order to be rid of the painful tumour on the eyelid, provincially known as the west or sty, it is customary for the sufferer, on the first night of the new moon, to procure the tail of a black cat, and after pulling from it one hair, rub the tip nine times over the pustule. As this has a very cabalistic look, and is moreover frequently attended with sundry severe scratches, a gold ring is found to be a much more harmless substitute; and as it is said to be equally beneficial with the former, it is now more commonly used. This superstition is alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher, "Mad Lovers," v. 4:I have a sty here, Chilax. 66 Chi. I have no gold to cure it, not a penny." The most innocent of all " charms," however, are those little golden ornaments which romantic young ladies present to romantic young gentlemen to wear on their watch-guards and place underneath their pillows at nights! We might, had we space, enlarge upon another kind of token given by gentlemen to ladies, both young and old-the wedding ring; but as we have already spoken at some length of rings and their associations (ante, p. 10), we need, in conclusion, do no more than wish every lady reader a wedding ring of her own, and health and happiness to wear it. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ITALIAN PROVERBS. PROVERBS are the expression of ideas which strike a whole people as undeniable truths, and either for their point, or tact, or universal applicability, become "familiar in their mouths as household words.' It is not the least curious circumstance in connexion with proverbial philosophy, that there is scarcely one "old saying" in any nation which is not known to most others under a different form, the change being made to suit some peculiarity in manners, customs, or even the productions of the country. The English point to "carrying coals to Newcastle" as extreme of useless labour; the Jews placed it in the conveyance of "oil to a city of palms." "A constant drop wears a stone," turns up in France in the guise of "A force de forger, on devient un forgeron,"-by dint of forging one becomes a blacksmith. We might fill a volume with instances such as these. The Italians are remarkable for throwing their proverbs into personified forms, if we may so speak, which of course renders the idea the fitter for illustration. We have selected a few of them for that purpose, which do not bear so deep a stamp of nationality about them as render them uninteresting or unintelligible to the American reader. Few of the people of modern Europe have so large a collection as the Italians, as a long and almost uninterrupted flow of civilisation, and eminence in the arts and literature, have enabled them to lay up a more than ordinary store of popular wisdom, the common sense of every-day life. Pity it does not produce better fruit in their acts. It is rather singular that "wise saws" are nearly always most numerous amongst people who do least. Shortcomings in acting are made up for by a multiplicity of sage apophthegms. Few men ever uttered so many, containing so much sound truth and wisdom, as Lord Bacon, and probably few men ever failed so deplorably in carrying out the simplest and plainest axiom of morality. Proverbs are plentiful amongst most lazy, unenergetic nations; and we suppose the want of consistency in their character may be ascribed to the same human weakness which caused the fall of the great philosopher. We cannot conclude without stating that the proverbial sayings of most countries fall far short of embodying 2. Che porta dietro il torchio ha par costume, A se far ombra, ed a chi 'l segue lume. He who carries the torch behind him gives himself the shade, and to him who follows, the light. 3. Mi lambico il cervello tutto lieto. I puzzle my brain with a great deal of pleasure. |