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Ch. 5: Ominous Luminous Stones

Ch. 4: Engraved Gems as Talismans Page of 467 Ch. 5: Ominous Luminous Stones Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
HERE can be little doubt that much of the modern superstition regarding the supposed unlucky quality of the opal owes its origin to a carele'ss reading of Sir Walter Scott's novel, "Anne of Geierstein."3 The wonderful tale therein related of the Lady Hermione, a sort of enchanted princess, who came no one knew whence and always wore a dazzling opal in her hair, eon-tains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to rep­resent the opal as unlucky. Lady Hermione's gem was an enchanted stone just as its owner was a product of
"The opal is said to preserve its wearer from disease; and hence, in the East, is much used in the form of amulets.
2 From " Gems of Beauty," by the Countess of Blessington, Lon­don, 1836.
* SirJWalter__gœttf " KOvels,'^_Thg__Jan.son Society, New York, 1907, vol. xxiii, pp. 126-138.
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Ch. 4: Engraved Gems as Talismans Page of 467 Ch. 5: Ominous Luminous Stones
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