262 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
uette—constructed
of wood covered with gold plates—is stiff and conventional, but it is
not unimpressive and gives evidence of considerable skill on the part
of the artist. Nevertheless, it certainly has nothing of the youthful
grace we would associate with a virgin martyr.20
The
offering of precious stones to attract the favor of gods or saints is
really a talismanic use of such gems and is intimately connected with
the wearing of gems for their talismanic or therapeutic effect. The
gift established a sort of relation between the being whose help was
desired and the petitioner, and the gem was the medium through which
the favor was bestowed.
The legend of the royal princess who was canonized by the Church as St. Enimie (d. 628 or 630 a.d.) contains
an account of a miraculous spring and also enshrines the popular view
of the cause of the strange outlines of an extensive mass of heaped-np
boulders. This saint was a daughter of the French king Clotaire Π ( d.
628). Her most ardent wish was to devote herself exclusively to the
service of Christ, but her royal parent insisted upon a marriage with
one of the great nobles. The princess, who was the fairest of the fair,
put up an earnest prayer that the Lord would destroy her beauty, even
at the expense of some dreadful malady, so that she might cease to be
an object of desire for men. Her prayer was heard and she was stricken
with leprosy which entirely blotted out her charms. Not long after this
an angel appeared to her in a dream and directed her to bathe in the
Fountain of Boule, in the region of Gévaudan. On doing so she was
immediately cured of her leprosy, but as soon as she went away from the
spring to return to the royal residence, the malady returned. A second
attempt had the same favorable and unfavorable results, and she
"See plate in the present writer's "Curious Lore of Precious Stones," J. B. Lippincott Company, 1913, opp. p. 350.
