edly represents for us the mental attitude of primitive man.
Probably
the first objects chosen for personal adornment were those easily
strung or bound together,—for instance, certain perforated shells and
brilliant seeds; the harder gems must have been hoarded as pretty toys
the "help of the simplest tools, probably came next, while the harder
gems must have been hoarded as pretty toys long before they could be
adjusted for use as ornaments.
Unquestionably,
when these objects had once been worn, there was a disposition to
attribute certain happenings to their influence and power, and in this
way there arose a belief in their efficacy, and, finally, the
conviction that they were the abodes of powerful spirits. In this, as
in many other things, man's first and instinctive appreciation was the
truest, and it has required centuries of enlightenment to bring us
back to this love of precious stones for their esthetic beauty alone.
Indeed, even to-day, we can see the power of superstitious belief in
the case of the opal, which some timid people still fear to wear,
although until three or four centuries ago this stone was thought to
combine all the virtues of the various colored gems, the hues of which
are united in its sparkling light.
A
proof that bright and colored objects were attractive in themselves,
and were first gathered up and preserved by primitive man for this
reason alone, may be found in the fact that certain birds, notable the Chlamy-dera of
Australia, related to our ravens, after constructing for themselves
pretty arbors, strew the floors with variegated pebbles, so arranged as
to suggest a mosaic pavement. At the entrance of the arbors are heaped
up pieces of bone, shells, feathers, and stones, which have often been
brought from a considerable distance, this
