visible.
The light side represents the old year, with its known occurrences,
and the opaque side represents the new year, which is dark like
futurity. This is a typical stone for a New Year's present or for one
born on St. Sylvester's Day, the last day of the year. The popular
tradition is that the member of a family or a household who is last to
arise on that day will be the last to arise all the year around.
The
famous "Sacro Catino" preserved in Genoa was long believed to be made
of a single immense emerald, but careful investigation proved that it
was of no more valuable material than green glass. A legend still
current in the early part of the sixteenth century represented this
cup, or dish, as having been used by Christ at the Last Supper, and
stated that it was one of the utensils which King Herod ordered to be
brought from Galilee to Jerusalem for the celebration of the paschal
feast; but his purpose having been
