RELIGIOUS USES OF PRECIOUS STONES 231
monarchs. Of the sirgarru and dushu stones nothing is known, but the elmêshu, the
seventh in the list, was evidently regarded as the most brilliant and
splendid of all ; indeed, Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch hazards the
conjecture that it is the diamond. In any case this stone must have
been set in rings and considered very valuable, for in an Assyrian text
occurs the following passage: "Like an elmêshu ring may I be precious in thine eyes." 12 The fact that this stone is described as having "a celestial beauty" might incline us to believe that it was a sapphire.
The
idea of this mystic ornament, composed of seven gems, probably
originated in Babylonia, where the number seven was looked upon as
especially sacred. As we shall see, there is some reason to attribute a
Hindu origin to the nine gems, "the covering" of the King of Tyre,
enumerated by Ezekiel, while the breastplate on the ephod of the Hebrew
high-priest, with its twelve stones, symbolizing the twelve months of
the year, appears to be of later date, and seems to belong to thè time
of the return from the Babylonian Captivity and the building of the
second temple. Certainly, the historic and prophetic books of the Old
Testament know nothing of it, although the Urim and Thummim are
mentioned and the elaborate description given in Exodus is generally
regarded by Biblical scholars as belonging to the so-called "Priestly
Codex," the latest part of the Pentateuch, gradually evolved during the
Exile and given its final form in the fifth century b.c.
In the very ancient Assyrio-Babylonian epic narrative of the descent of the goddess Ishtar to Hades, the guar-
13 Deutsch, "Assyrisches Wörterbuch," _ Leipzig, 1896, p. 74, s. v. elmêshu.
