The Value of Precious Stones to Ancients

Rock-crystal is included among the various objects used as fetiches by the Cherokee Indians. This stone is believed to have great power to give aid in hunting and also in divining. One owner of such a crystal kept his magic stone wrapped up in buckskin and hid it in a sacred cave; at stated intervals he would take it out of its repository and "feed" it by rubbing over it the blood of a deer. This goes to prove that the stone, as a fetich, was considered to be a living entity and as such to require nourishment. ("Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico," ed. by Frederick Webb Hodge; Smithsonian Inst., Bur. of Am. Ethn. Bull. 30. Pt. I; Washington, 1910.)

Precious stones have been everywhere regarded as especially appropriate offerings at the shrine of a divinity, for the worshipper naturally thought that what was most valuable and beautiful in his eyes must also be most pleasing to the divinity he worshipped. However, we rarely find the usage which was remarked by Francisco Lopez de Gomara among the Indians of New Granada about the time of the Spanish Conquest. ("Historia de las Indias," in "Bib. de autores espanoles," vol. xxii, Madrid, 1852.) These natives "burned gold and emeralds" before the images of the sun and moon, which were regarded as the highest divinities. Certainly to use precious stones for a "burnt offering" was an original and curious idea, although we have abundant proof that pearls were offered in this way by the mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley. In this case great quantities of pearls were burned at the obsequies of the chiefs of the tribes, or at those of any one belonging to the family of a chief.

In ancient Mexico the lapidaries adored the four following divinities as their tutelary gods: Chiconaui Itzcuintli ("nine dogs"), Naualpilli ("noble necromancer"), Macuilcalli ("five horses"), and Cintectl ("the god of harvest"). A festival was celebrated in honor of the three last-named divinities when the zodiacal sign called chiconaui itzcuintli was in the ascendant. A feminine divinity represented this sign and to her was attributed the invention of the garments and the ornaments worn by women. The four gods of the lapidaries were looked upon as the discoverers and teachers of the art of cutting precious stones and of piercing and polishing them, as well as of the making of labrets and ear-flaps of obsidian, rock-crystal, or amber. They also were the inventors of necklaces and bracelets. (Sahagun, "Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana," Mexico, 1829, vol. ii, lib. ix, cap. xvii.)

The stones worn by Chinese mandarins as a designation of their rank were undoubtedly determined originally by religious or ceremonial considerations. They are as follows; it will be noticed that red stones are given the preference:

Red or pink tourmaline, ruby (and rubellite)........1st rank.

Coral or an inferior red stone (garnet)..................2d rank.

Blue stone (beryl or lapis-lazuli)............................3d rank.

Rock-crystal............................................................4th rank.

Other white stones.................................................5th rank.