The History and Folklore of the Opal

THE OPAL

Mother. Come, let me place a charm upon thy brow,

And may good spirits grant, that never care

Approach, to trace a single furrow there!

Daughter. Thy love, my mother, better far than charm,

Shall shield thy child--and yet this wondrous gem

Looks as though some strange influence it had won

From the bright skies--for every rainbow hue

Shoots quivering through its depths in changeful gleams,

Like the mild lightnings of a summer eve.

Mother. Even so doth love pervade a mother's heart;

Thus, ever active, looks through her fond eyes. (From "Gems of Beauty," by the Countes of Blessington, London, 1836.)

There can be little doubt that much of the modern superstition regarding the supposed unlucky quality of the opal owes its origin to a careless reading of Sir Walter Scott's novel, "Anne of Geierstein." (Sir Walter Scott, "Novels," The Janson Society, New York, 1907.) The wonderful tale therein related of the Lady Hermione, a sort of enchanted princess, who came no one knew whence and always wore a dazzling opal in her hair, contains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to represent the opal as unlucky. Lady Hermione's gem was an enchanted stone just as its owner was a product of enchantment, and its peculiarities depended entirely upon its mysterious character, which might equally well have been attributed to a diamond, a ruby, or a sapphire. The life of the stone was bound up with the life of Hermione; it sparkled when she was gay, it shot out red gleams when she was angry; and when a few drops of holy water were sprinkled over it, they quenched its radiance. Hermione fell into a swoon, was carried to her chamber, and the next day nothing but a small heap of ashes remained on the bed whereon she had been laid. The spell was broken and the enchantment dissolved. All that can have determined the selection of the opal rather than any other precious stone is the fact of its wonderful play of color and its sensitiveness to moisture. Hence we are perfectly justified in returning to the older belief of the manifold virtues of the opal, only remembering that this gem is a little more fragile than many others and should be more carefully handled and guarded.

The opal, October's gem, recalls in its wonderful and varied play of color the glories of a bright October day in the country, when earth and sky vie with each other in brilliancy and the eye is fairly dazzled with the bewildering variety of color.

It rarely happens that Pliny gives any information as to particular jewels, almost all his notices of precious stones being confined to descriptions of their form and color, and data regarding what was popularly believed as to their talismanic or therapeutic power. In the case of the opalus, however, he writes as follows: "There exists to-day a gem of this kind, on account of which the senator Nonius was proscribed by Antony. Seeking safety in flight, he took with him of all his possessions this ring alone, which it is certain, was valued at 2,000,000 sesterces ($80,000)." (Plinii, "Naturalis historia,".) The stone was "as large as a hazel-nut."

This "opal of Nonius" would be the great historic opal if we had any assurance that it was really the stone to which we now give this name. As, however, the principal European source of supply in Hungary does not appear to have been available in classic times to the Romans, and as opals are not found in the places whence, according to Pliny, the opalus was derived, we are almost forced to the conclusion that he had some other stone in mind when he gave his eloquent description of the opalus. And yet, in spite of all this, Pliny's words so well describe the beauties of a fine opal that it is difficult to determine what other stone he could have meant. For it can well be said of opals that "There is in them a softer fire than in the carbuncle, there is the brilliant purple of the amethyst; there is the sea-green of the emerald--all shining together in incredible union. Some by their refulgent splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil." (Plinii, 1. c.) Possibly some brilliant varieties of iridescent quartz--"iris" quartz, possessing an internal fracture, displays with great brilliancy all the colors of the rainbow,sparkling with wonderful clearness in its field of transparent mineral--might excite the admiration of one who had never seen an opal. Referring again to these quartz crystals, they are often cut so as to form a dome of quartz and are even used as distinct jewels. The fact that Pliny could praise the Indian imitations of the opalus in glass, and could state that this stone was more successfully imitated than any other, is an almost decisive argument against identifying the opalus with an opal, for it is well known that no stone is more difficult to imitate.

About the middle of the eighteenth century, a peasant found a brilliant precious stone in some old ruins at Alexandria, Egypt. This stone was set in a ring. It was as large as a hazel-nut and is said to have been an opal cut en cabochon. According to the report, it was eventually taken to Constantinople, where it was estimated to be worth "several thousand ducats." (Hesselquist, "Voyages and Travels in the Levant," English trans., London, 1766.) The description given of this gem, its apparent antiquity, and the high value set upon it have contributed to induce many to conjecture that it was the celebrated "opal of Nonius." Of course this was nothing but a romantic fancy. It is also quite certain that an opal would scarcely hold its play of color or compactness for twenty centuries, for most opals lose their water--slowly perhaps, but surely--within a lesser space of time. Even the finest Hungarian opals show some loss of life and color within a century or even less, and some transparent Mexican opals lose their color and are filled with flaws within a few years' time.

The Edda tells of a sacred stone called the yarkastein, which the clever smith Volondr (the Scandinavian Vulcan) formed from the eyes of children. Grimm conjectures that this name designates a round, milk-white opal. Certainly the opal was often called ophthalmios, or eyestone, in the Middle Ages, and it was a common idea that the image of a boy or girl could be seen in the pupil of the eye.

Albertus Magnus describes under the name orphanus a stone which was set in the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire. This gem is believed to have been a splendid opal, and Albertus describes it as follows:

The orphanus is a stone which is in the crown of the Roman Emperor, and none like it has ever been seen; for this very reason it is called orphanus. It is of a subtle vinous tinge, and its hue is as though pure white snow flashed and sparkled with the color of bright, ruddy win, and was overcome by this radiance. It is a translucent stone, and there is a tradition that formerly it shone in the night-time; but now, in our age, it does not sparkle in the dark. It is said to guard the regal honor. (Alberti Magni, Opera Omnia, ed. Borgnet, Parisiis, 1890.)

Evidently this imperial gem was regarded as sui generis, for Albertus has just described the ophthalmus lapis, a name frequently bestowed upon the opal in medieval times, reciting the virtues usually ascribed to the opal for the cure of diseases of the eye, and the magic power of the stone to render its wearer invisible, wherefore it was denominated patronus furum, or "patron of thieves."

In the Middle Ages the opal mines of Cernowitz, in Hungary, were very actively exploited, and at the opening of the fifteenth century more than three hundred men are said to have been employed here in the search for opals. At that time, and for many centuries after, no breath of suspicion ever tarnished the fame of the opal as not only a thing of rare beauty, but also a talisman of the first rank. We are told that blond maidens valued nothing more highly than necklaces of opals, for while they wore these ornaments their hair was sure to guard its beautiful color. The latter superstitions probably arose from the frangibility of the stone and its occasional loss of fire.