AMULETS: ANCIENT, MEDIEVAL, ORIENTAL 343
one
made of rubies, another of sapphires, still another of emeralds, and so
on through the range of colors. In this way she always had a pansy
according in color with that of her gown. As bridal gifts these
jewel-flowers are most appropriate, more especially when the lady-love
bears a "floral name" such as Violet or Rose.
Coral
ornaments of all sorts are in great demand in Tibet, and a fine piece
of this material will bring about $20 an ounce, and is therefore
literally worth its weight in gold. The Venetian traveller, Marco Polo,
who visited Tibet in the latter half of the thirteenth century, already
noted that coral was in high favor there and that coral necklaces
adorned the necks of the women and also those of the idols in their
temples. The love of personal adornment is very strong among the
Tibetan women, and those in any way well-to-do load themselves with a
mass of jewelled ornaments, great pieces of amber, coral and turquoise
constituting the principal gem-material. The favor extended to coral,
apart from the religious significance of red as symbolical of one of
the incarnations of Buddha, may perhaps have an esthetic basis as well,
for red or pink affords a pleasant contrast to the dark complexions
and hair of the Tibetans.46
Much
more prized, however, than coral is the beautiful blue turquoise, which
not only serves for purely ornamental use but is freely employed in the
decoration of religious objects, such as the curious "prayer wheels"
so indispensable a part of Tibetan ritual.
The
talismanic quality of this stone is an important element in its
popularity, as it is supposed to bring good fortune and physical
well-being to the wearer and to afford protection against contagion.
The Tibetans share in the quite general belief that the turquoise will
grow pale in
* L. Austine Waddell, " Lhasa and its Mysteries, with a Record of the Expedition of 1903-1904," London, 1905, pp. 347, 348.
