322 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
of
legend. One of them represents these fragments of precious stones as
having originally adorned the richly decorated vases and vessels of
Alexander the Great, which were broken up and cast into the sea by
Alexander's mother after his death. The other tale was to the effect
that Alexander himself had gathered together a mass of jewels and
ordered them to be thrown into the sea near the Pharos, so that its
neighborhood should never be deserted; for, Mas'ûdi remarks, wherever
precious stones are to be found, whether in mines or in the depths of
the sea, men are sure to assemble to seek for them.11
The
prophet Isaiah in his third chapter, where he scores the wantonness and
vanity of the Daughters of Zion (vs. 16-26), enumerates in detail the
various adornments of aHebrew mondaine toward the end of the eighth century before Christ. Among the jewels and trinkets, amulets (lehâshîm; v.
20) are expressly mentioned, and also "crescents," these being probably
of gold. While it is not possible to determine the material of the
amulets, the fact that they are named together with rich ornaments of
various kinds, rings, nose-jewels, bracelets, anklets, etc., indicates
that they were of precious material, and were possibly engraved
precious stones or seals of some sort.12 In the Song of
Songs, which can scarcely be assigned to a later date than Isaiah, and
may have been written earlier, the seal is named in what is perhaps the
most beautiful passage of this unique poem, Chapter VII, verse 6 :
"Maçoudi,
"Les Prairies d'Or," text and French trans, by Barbier de Meynard and
Pavet de Courteille, vol. ii, Paris, 1863, pp. 436, 437, chap, xxxii.
"Cesenins
in his Hebrew Dictionary even conjectures that the lehashtm may have
been shells, which when held to the ear gare forth »<mn<U
believed t» have an ominous significance.
