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Ch. 7: Religious Use of Gemstones

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246 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
regarded as of altogether exceptional value, for in it was a design miraculously engraven. This was a figure, seated on a mat, with a flower-vase on its left and an alms-howl on the right, in the midst of rocks enveloped in clouds. The figure was an image of the Buddhist saint, Samantabahadra, and the plaque is said to have heen washed out of a sacred cave in the year 1068, by a violent and mysterious current.33
Jade talismans are very popular at the present day in the Mohammedan world, and among the Turks they are so highly prized as heirlooms that it is difficult to secure any of them. There is an orthodox Mohammedan sect, whose members call themselves Pekdash, and who during their whole lifetime carry about with them a flat piece of jade as a protection against injury or annoyance of every kind.34
' The four rain-making gods are shown wearing neck­laces of coral and turquoise in the ceremonial sand-paint­ings of the Navajos. These four gods are respectively colored to denote the four cardinal points; black for North, blue for South, yellow for West, and white for East. The whole painting, measuring nine by thirteen feet, is guarded on three sides by magic wands ; toward the East it is left unprotected, as only good spirits are believed to dwell in this direction. Each of the rain-gods carries suspended from his right wrist an elabo­rately decorated tobacco pouch, bearing the figure of a stone pipe. The Navajos belreve that in this pouch the god places a ray of sunlight with which he lights his pipe ;
a The Bishop Collection : " Investigations and Studies in Jade," New York, 1906, vol. i, p. 36.
" Robert, " Ein Edelstein der Vorzeit," Stuttgart, 1910, p. 26.
Ch. 7: Religious Use of Gemstones Page of 467 Ch. 7: Religious Use of Gemstones
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