AMULETS: ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, ORIENTAL 323
Set me as a seal upon thine heart;
as a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death;
passion is unyielding as Hades, The flashes thereof are flashes of fire;
an all-consuming flame.
The
golden "crescents" were used as amulets by the Midianites for
suspension on the necks of their camels, at the period of the Hebrew
conquest of Canaan, as appears from the eighth chapter of Judges (v.
21).
The
burying in a grave of valuable gems and ornaments worn by the deceased
during life must have been originally due to a belief that they served
as talismans to guard the remains from the malign influence of evil
spirits, or perhaps even to afford protection and aid, by some strange
occult power, to the soul of the departed in the under or upper world
whither it had journeyed. In the New World, among the more highly
civilized and wealthy Indian tribes of the south, this custom was very
general, and rich spoils have been taken from their graves by the
unsentimental settlers from Europe. In the Old World also this usage
was quite common; Egyptian tombs have afforded jewels of gold and gems
worth large sums intrinsically, apart from their archaeological value,
and only to note one among many instances, we may recall the treasures
unearthed by the indefatigable Schliemann in the old Greek tombs of
Mycenae. However, of all these finds none surpasses in interest that
made by M. Henry de Morgan near Susa on February 10, 1901, when there
was brought to light, from a depth of some six metres below the
surface, a bronze sarcophagus containing the skeleton of a woman.
Heaped upon the breast of the skeleton and strewn about the head and
neck was a mass of finely-wrought and artistic gems and jewels,
including several detached amulets. From coins found in the burial and
also from the general character of these relics, M. de Morgan
