ón
one ol his fingers as a ring, and in this ring was set a fragment of
the rock to which he had been chained, so that he might be still
regarded as bound to the Caucasian rock.
Another
origin ascribed to the ring is the knot. A knotted cord or a piece of
wire twisted into a knot was a favorite charm in primitive times.
Frequently this was used to cast a spell over a person, so as to
deprive him of the use of one of his limbs or one of his faculties; at
other times, the power of the charm was directed against the evil
spirit which was supposed to cause disease or lameness, and in this
case the charm had curative power. " It has been conjectured that the
magic virtues attributed to rings originated in this way, the ring
being regarded as a simplified form of a knot; indeed, not infrequently
rings were and are made in the form of knots.1 This symbol
undoubtedly signified the binding or attaching of the spell to its
object, and the same idea is present in the true-lovers' knot.
Many
rings of the Bronze Age were found in the course of excavations
conducted in 1901 by M. Henri de Morgan in the valley of Agha Evlar,
stretching back from Kerghan on the Caspian Sea, in the region known as
the " Persian Talyche." Here several sepulchral dolmens were
discovered which yielded a considerable number of ornamental objects
of metal and stone, as well as beads of vitreous paste. There was no
trace of inscriptions to aid in dating these "Scythian" finds, but they
are considered to belong to the second millennium before Christ. The
bronze rings are of several different types, some of them showing from
three to five spirals; in other cases the ends
1 Fossey, " La magie assyrienne," Paris, 1902, p. 88.
