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Ch. 7: Magic Talismanic Rings

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MAGIC AND TALISMANIC RINGS             805
green hue, was exceedingly tough and its weight is fixed at 120 drachmas. When cleaned and polished it cast a reflection like that of a fine mirror. A piece of this stone set in a ring and worn by a woman would assure her a series of boy babies.
Another ring-stone, one having a different effect, was that called the "hermit's stone," which was washed up by the waves on the shore of the Red Sea. Its color was yellow, transparent, and had a sheen like that of pure oil; possibly this may have been chryso­lite. It was eminently and rigidly a stone of chastity. The lapis lazuli was dedicated to Venus, and any man who wore one set in a ring, while Venus was in the ascendant, would attract the love of women, especially of those with blue-gray eyes. On a woman's hand, it had a corresponding effect upon the opposite sex.32
An old German lay tells of a magic gold ring set with a diamond. Should the woman wearing this ring prove unfaithful in love, the gold turned to dross, and the diamond became glass. The Latin name of the diamond, adamas, is the form used in this poem.33 This word, which primarily signified an exceedingly hard metal, finally came to mean the diamond, or at least what was believed to be a diamond, although it might in reality be only a colorless corundum, much less hard than the genuine diamond, but harder than any of the other precious stones except the colored corundums, ruby, sapphire, etc.
The thirteenth century German romance, "Wolf-dietrich," celebrates a ring given by the empress to
32 " Lapidario del Rey D. Alfonso X, codice original," Madrid, 1881, folios 3 recto, col. 2; 14 recto, col. 2; 106, verso, col. 2.
33 Mauricii Pinder, "De adamante," Berolini, 1829, p. 68. 20
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