20 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES ·
objects.
We can observe this in the case of animals and very young children, who
regard any moving object as endowed with life. In the case of stones,
however, it seems probable that those supposed to be the abode of
spirits, good or evil, were selected because their natural form
suggested that of some animal or of some portion of the human body. On
the other hand, the wearing of what we call precious stones is more
likely to have been due to the attraction exercised by bright colors
upon the eye of the beholder and to the desire to display some
distinguishing mark that would command attention and admiration for the
weaver. This tendency runs through the higher animal kingdom, and its
workings have served as a foundation for the theory of natural
selection.
It
seems likely that we have here the true explanation of the motive for
the gathering, preserving, and wearing of precious stones. Since these
objects are motionless, they can scarcely have impressed the mind of
primitive man with the idea that they were alive; they were not
imposing by their mass, as were large stones, and their crystalline
form scarcely figured any known living shape. Hence their chief, we may
even say their only attraction was their color and brilliancy. What
effect these qualities had upon the visual sense of primitive man may
be safely inferred from the effect such objects produce upon infants.
The baby has no fear in regard to a small and brilliantly colored
object which is shown to it, but will eagerly put out its hand to
seize, hold, and gaze upon a bright-colored stone. As the object is
quite passive and easily handled, there is nothing to suggest any
lurking power to harm, and therefore there is nothing to interfere with
the pleasurable sensation aroused in the optic nerve by the play of
color. In this naïve admiration of what is brilliant and colored, the
infant undoubt-
