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56
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RINGS
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cover
and are similarly decorated on top with plum blossoms and held together
by a twig, a leaf, and an upright bud which serves as a handle. The
whole is very daintily cut and polished, and is so thin and of such
translucency that print in contact with it can easily be read through
it. The mineral is remarkably pure and resembles a pale transparent
horn.
While
the Greeks and Romans did not usually wear rings on the middle finger,
the Gauls and Britons adorned it in this way. In the sixteenth century
it was customary to assign rings as follows, according to the quality
of the wearer:92
To
the thumb for doctors. To the index finger for merchants. To the middle
finger for fools. To the annular finger for students. To the auricular
finger for lovers.
There
is a curious Hindu superstition to the effect that anyone who wears a
ring on the middle finger will probably be attacked and bitten by a
scorpion. For this reason the Hindus are said to avoid wearing any
rings on this finger, although the others are laden with them, each
finger-joint having its special adornment.93 In the Graeco-Roman world also there was a prejudice against decorating the middle finger with a ring.
Regarding
the liberality with which the Greeks and Romans of the second century
of our era used ring adornments for their fingers, the great Greek
humorist Lucian gives testimony. In his writing entitled " The Cock,"
he makes a character relate a dream in which the dreamer thought that a
rich man had just died and had left him
92 Schaumi, " De annulis," Francofurti, 1620, cap. ix.
93 Col. T. C. Hendley, " Indian Jewellery," London, 1909, p. 79. Journal of Indian Art and Industry.
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