|
STONES OF HEALING
|
145
|
||
|
|
|||
|
years
from hemorrhages. Many different remedies had been tried without avail,
and when De Boot was called in to attend the case, he advised the woman
to wear a red jasper. As soon as this stone was attached to her
person the hemorrhage ceased. After wearing the jasper for some time,
the woman thought she could safely lay it aside, but whenever she did
so the hemorrhage returned after a longer or shorter interval, while it
always ceased immediately she resumed wearing the stone. This seemed to
prove conclusively that it checked the flow of blood. Eventually the
woman was so effectively cured that she was able to give up wearing the
stone. Green jasper, if worn attached to the neck so as to touch the
gastric region, was, according to De Boot, a cure for all diseases of
the stomach. The same writer alludes to the belief that the virtue of
this stone was enhanced if it were engraved with the image of a
scorpion while the sun was entering the constellation Scorpio, but he
rejects this belief as entirely superstitious and futile, while
admitting that, to obtain the best results, the jasper should always be
set in silver.
Pear-shaped
pieces of red jasper seem to have been more especially favored for use
as amulets. Italian amulets of to-day show this, and Bellucci finds
that the form is chosen as representing a drop of blood, and thus
aiding, by sympathetic magic, in the cure of hemorrhages or wounds,
and preventing the infliction of the latter. Sometimes such amulets of
red jasper are attached to the bed-post by a red ribbon. In the case of
a particularly valued amulet of this type, Bellucci was informed by the
peasant owner that it owed its great virtue to having been blessed by
the parish priest. Thus the traditional power of a pagan amulet
received the sanction of the church and the object was associated
with purely Christian amulets.67
"Bellucci, "Il feticismo primitivo in Italia," Perugia, 1907, pp. 87-90.
|
|||
|
|
|||