282 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
tribes,
the result being that the tribe to which the diamond was assigned
would have been puffed up with pride, while the others would have been
filled with hatred and envy, "for the diamond is the Queen Gem of all
the gems."6
The
use of the breastplate to reveal the guilt of an offender is testified
to in a Samaritan version of the book of Joshua, which has been
discovered by Dr. Moses Gaster, chief rabbi of the Spanish and
Portuguese Jews in England. According to this version, Achan steals a
golden image from a heathen temple in Jericho. The high-priest's
breastplate reveals his guilt, for the stones lose their light and grow
dim when his name is pronounced.
Many
conjectures have been made as to the origin of the breastplate with the
mystic Urim and Thummim enclosed within it. That an Egyptian origin
should be sought seems most probable. A breast-ornament worn by the
high-priest of Memphis, as figured in an Egyptian relief, consists of
twelve small balls, or crosses, intended to represent Egyptian
hieroglyphics. As it cannot be determined that these figures were cut
from precious stones, the only definite connection with the Hebrew
ornament is the number of the figures ; this suggests, but fails to
prove, a common origin. The monuments show that the high-priest of
Memphis wore this ornament as early as the fourth Dynasty, or,
approximately, 4000 b.c.7
Of the Urim and Thummim, the mysterious oracle of the ancient Hebrews, St. Augustine (354-450 a.D.), after acknowledging the great difficulty of interpreting the
" See Gimma, " Della storia naturale delle gemme," Napoli, 1730, vol. i, pp. 208, 209.
'Hommel, "Altisraelitische Ueberlieferung," pp. 281, sqq.; Erman, "Aegypten," Tübingen, 1885, p. 402.
