ancient
civilization of Babylonia. Some of them contain references to the use
of precious stones as amulets, as appears in the following specimen:
Cords of light-colored wool,
Offered ( ?) with a pure hand,
For jaundice of the eye,
Bind on the right side (of the patient).
A lululti ring, with sparkling stones
Brought from his own land,
Tor inflammation of the eye,
On the little finger
Of his left (hand), place."
A
curious Babylonian mythological text represents the solar diety Ninib,
the son of Bel, as determining the fate of various stones by
pronouncing a blessing or a curse upon them. For instance, the dolomite
was blessed and declared to be fit material for the statues of kings,
while a substance called the elu stone was cursed, proclaimed
to be unfit for working, and doomed to disintegration. Alabaster was
favored by the god, but chalcedony aroused his anger and was condemned.10
In these Sumero-Assyrian inscriptions, there is also mention of two stones, the aban rame and the abati la rame, the "Stone of Love" and the "Stone of Hate" (lit. "non-love").11
Evidently these stones were believed to excite one or other of these
contradictory passions in the hearts of the wearers, and they may be
compared with the stones of memory and forgetfulness in the "Gesta
Romanorum."
In an ancient Egyptian burial-place at Shêch Abd el-
* Morris Jastrow, " Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens," vol. i, Giessen, 1905, p. 374.
"Morris Jastrow, 1. c, p. 462.
n Delitzsch, " Assyrisches Wörterbuch," Leipzig, 1896, p. 604.
