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OPALUS.
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245
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influence
to induce the possessor of so precious a medium to convert it into an
amulet, of virtue doubtless commensurate with its price. Another
magnificent Opal, though corroded by time, is set in a cabalistic ring
of the 13th century, now in the Braybrooke Collection.
A
stone apparently so instinct with life, naturally bore an abundant crop
of superstitions to the vivid imaginations of the multitude in the
Dark Ages. Some slight traces of these are already apparent in Orpheus
(279), who declares that the Opal, " displaying the complexion of a
lovely boy" (alluding to its epithet Pœderos), gives delight to the
Immortals, and is also a protection to the sight. Marbodus, converting
the word into Ophthalmitis, improves largely upon the simple
dictum of his predecessor, adding that it also confers the gift of
invisibility upon the wearer, so that the thief protected by it could
carry off his plunder in open day.* Still lower down in the Middle Ages
the Opal was believed to possess united the special virtue of every gem
with whose distinctive colour it was emblazoned. Even De Boot evidently
believes " that the wearing of it preserves the sight and the
brightness of the eyes." But the climax is attained in the extravagant
laudations delivered by Petrus Arlensis, a visionary of Henri IV.'s
reign. " The various colours in the Opal tend greatly to
* Opalus was supposed to be only another form of Ophthalmitis, '
Eye-stone," whence sprung these notions of its virtue. This derivation
gave birth to the old spelling " Ophal : " take, for example, in the
list of Queen Elizabeth's jewels (Hail. MSS.), " A Flower of gold
garnished with sparkes of Diamonds, Rubies, and Ophals, with
an Agate of her Majestie's viznomy ; with a pearle pendant ; and
devices painted upon it. Given by eight Masks in the Christmas week
anno regni 24m0." Some conjecture the Opal to be the gem
called by the rabbins the " Calf's-eye," which, however, was much more
probably a three-coloured Onyx, like that known to the Greeks as the
Lyeophthalmus.
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