322 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES those appropriate to the months, an order which in its origin dates back to the early Christian centuries and which, from the close relation with the sacred gems of the Scriptures, it seems almost sacrilegious to violate by arbitrary changes.
	Then, in addition, we have the ''talismanie gems," or the stones of the twelve guardian angels, one set over all those born in each month. Here we have another time-honored list, differing from either of those men­tioned above, so that, in almost if not quite every case, each person has the choice between three different stones as "birth-stones," or can have them combined in an artistic jewel so as to profit by all the favorable influ-