Chapter XII: Ornaments

PRIMITIVE NECKLACES--FINGER-RINGS--THE ORIGIN OF THE HAIR
COMB--BUTTONS--STUDS--FLOWERS--FEATHERS--AMULETS

We have touched upon one or two objects which may have a decorative character, but we now come to a consideration of ornaments themselves. Roughly speaking, they owe their survival to one of two reasons: either the deep-rooted instinct which exists in even the lowest races for adorning their person, or, secondly, the adoption of various objects which have been worn as charms or amulets.

Dr. E. B. Tylor[10] has pointed out the tendency of higher civilization to give up savage ornaments. Not the most primitive possibly, but seemingly the most barbarous, are the ornaments which are fastened into the body in special orifices which are pierced to receive them. It is true that in this country we do not make holes in our lips for the insertion of wooden plugs two or three inches across, and the only nose ornaments which we see are on the faces of the Hindu ayahs who have come over from India with their white nurselings; but still many among the population pierce their ears for the reception of earrings. In the higher social ranks ear-drops are now worn which do not require the ear to be perforated for their reception; but among the lower orders--as, for instance, those who live in canal-boats--the ears of men, women, and children are still pierced.

Of ornaments which can be attached to the person without injuring it there are more in use, but they are practically confined in civilized countries to the neck, arms, and head. Of those which are fastened to clothes we will not for the moment speak. Beads, which at the moment of writing seem to be greatly in fashion, or their representatives, take us back to the very earliest men of whose work we have any knowledge. In the caves where the Stone Age men of the mammoth period lived there have been found periwinkle shells, which were bored to form bracelets or necklaces, just as nowadays native tribes and æsthetic ladies still make use of the more ornamental and beautiful exotic shells. The prehistoric Egyptians who, it has been calculated, flourished about 6000 B.C., had necklaces of beads cut out from pieces of shell, and others made of many different materials. Among the earliest remains in our own country beads are found, and throughout the historic period everywhere they seem to have held their sway.

We have already mentioned how easy it is for ornaments to be used as currencies, owing to the facility with which they may be carried on the person, and beads for many centuries have been used--as in Africa for instance--in the place of money. There are on the west coast of that continent still to be seen "aggries" similar to those which the Arab traders brought with them from Egypt as early as the seventeenth dynasty. At the present day beads of various kinds--for only particular varieties will buy certain commodities--are made and exported to Africa to be used in trading.

While speaking of Egyptian beads, it might be said that, as in other matters of art, the Egyptians excelled in the making of beads. Some--known as blue popo beads, which found their way to West Africa--are worth more than their weight in gold at the present day, and the most skilful of the Venetian beadmakers are unable to imitate them sufficiently well to induce the natives to accept them.

Chains for the neck in our time do not assume very massive proportions, except those which are used as symbols of office in the case of mayors and by the members of various knightly orders. These take us back to the time of Richard II, when such ornaments came into vogue.

Among savage races metal rings find much favour as ornaments, and they illustrate the fact that the lady who wears the minimum of clothes will put up with the height of inconvenience, not to say pain, just as her over-dressed and more civilized white sister will do, in order to be in the height of fashion. The Padaung women put metal collars round their necks when they are young children till these number between twenty and thirty, and the necks of the wearers are stretched out in the most grotesque and uncomfortable fashion. (See Plate VI.) African belles will wear great copper rings on their limbs, which get so hot in the sun that an attendant has to carry water with which to occasionally cool them down. The wearing of armlets and bracelets has never been confined to women. Men among the Greeks did not wear them, but among the Romans they did. Armlets were conferred on soldiers for heroic deeds, and even now the rank of non-commissioned officers in the army is indicated by stripes on their sleeves.

(_See page 114._)

_PLATE VI._]

Dr. Tylor hints that ordinary finger-rings have originated from those used as signets in Egypt and Babylon. In this case the modern signet ring, which we have already discussed in connection with heraldic devices, is a survival from the earliest times. Most rings are now merely ornamental, though a few are symbolical--the episcopal ring of the bishop, the engagement ring of the betrothed damsel, and the wedding ring of the wife.

As early as the seventh century a ring was among the distinctive insignia of a bishop, and one was found on the finger of Bishop Agilbert of Paris (who lived at this time) when his coffin was opened. The ring was of gold and, as is usual, had a jewel set in it, on which, in the particular case mentioned, was a likeness of Christ and of St. Jerome. The origin is no doubt to be found in the fact that in Roman times rings were used as an insignia of rank.

The episcopal ring proper was only one of many other rings which a bishop might wear as ornaments. It was borne on the third finger of the right hand, above the second joint, and was usually kept in place with a plain guard ring.

The Greeks and Romans used betrothal rings as pledges, but not wedding rings. There is a good deal of interesting symbolism in connection with rings, and it is said that the third finger of the left hand was chosen because in old times it was thought that a vein came to that finger direct from the heart. The practical point is that the finger in question is not very much used, and on it the rings would not be so liable to be worn out as on some of the others.

It is also supposed that the left hand was chosen as it was the less important, and the wearing of a ring on this hand signified servitude. An interesting form of early wedding rings was that called the gimmal ring, which consisted of two links, each having a hand upon it, which when brought together formed a single ring with the hands clasped together. The ring was used at betrothal, and the man and woman each kept a half until their wedding day. Perhaps the old custom of breaking a coin upon engagement so that each of the contracting parties may have half, is a relic of the same custom. In Ireland the peasantry still use a ring, though a solid one, bearing clasped hands. We have possibly a survival of the interesting posey rings in those which bear the word Mizpah. This originally signified "a watch-tower," but it is now taken as expressing the following sentiment: "God watch over thee and me when we are apart." In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the couplet or line was, as in the case mentioned, put on the outside of the ring, while later, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the words were engraved inside the ring. Occasionally we see a necktie held in place with a ring, and this may well be connected with the custom of wearing rings round the neck on a ribbon. It is recorded that the Duke of Burgundy, who died in 1476, carried his signet ring in this way.

A custom is still sometimes followed which dates back to the sixteenth century. It is that of choosing stones on account of the first letters of their names and setting them in a ring in such an order that the initials spell a word or words. For instance, the following--Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, and Diamond, indicate REGARD; while a lover's exhortation is produced by such a combination as Lapis-lazuli, Opal, Verdi-antique, Emerald, Malachite, Emerald.

Many of the Egyptian rings are made of blue pottery or faïence, and some of them show highly ornamental and pierced work. The lotus flowers and other figures upon them point to their being symbolical. Others bear the sacred eye in the place where the seal would be in a signet ring, and were probably used as amulets; but of ornaments worn on account of their supposed virtues we will speak in a moment.

An ornament for the head, with which we will deal, is the crown. Mr. Elworthy, in a paper to the British Association at Ipswich in 1895, derived the crown from horns of honour. He maintained that the symbols found on the head of the god Serapis were the elements from which were formed the composite head-dress called the crown, into which horns entered to a very great extent. The panache in heraldry is derived from the horn, and it may be recalled that the deer-skin cloaks worn by the Bronze Age people over the woven dresses that have been described on pages 18 and 73, bore the horns of the animal from which they were taken.

Though the comb used as an ornament in the hair is also worn on the head, it is on a very much lower plane than the crown, and has presumably a very much less exalted origin. Professor Boyd Dawkins[11] has expressed the opinion that the old loom comb (see Fig. 106), such as one found in the prehistoric lake dwellings which have been excavated at Glastonbury, is the ancestor of the comb worn as a head-dress at the present day (see Fig. 107). Combs were used to push down the weft on a hand loom, the warp being kept taut by means of weights. The long hair-combs used by the natives of the West Carolines are also of very much the same shape as the old loom combs.

Already in the safety-pin and scarf-pin we have had instances of fastenings which at times are ornamental. The button and its relative the stud afford another case in point. A stud is in reality a button which appears on both sides of the stuff through which it is put. It is obvious that it is most convenient to use when the material to be fastened is of a stiff texture. At present we use studs in our starched linen, and they are also adopted for fastening parts of leather accoutrements, as they evidently were in the times of the later bronze folk. This will be seen from Figure 108. One of these is adorned with the triskele, which is allied to the swastika, and no doubt gave rise to the three-legged charge on the coat of arms of the Isle of Man and of Sicily.

Buttons have from time to time done a great deal in the way of decorating clothes, in addition to the part which they have played as fastenings. We saw in an earlier chapter how many of our buttons, which are now only ornamental, were once of use, and any history of costume which goes into details will show how largely, superfluous buttons have figured as ornaments. The older Quakers, of course, refused to wear any buttons that were not needful, and brought down upon them the criticisms of Cobbett, who referred to other things which they lacked besides buttons. Although at the present time we may be inclined to appreciate some of our purposeless buttons, on account of their historic associations, we cannot say the same for many of those which now appear on ladies' dresses. There is little sense in having on the front of a bodice a series of buttons of which the first member is very large and the last very small, with the others graduated in size between them, while there seems to be no rhyme nor reason in many other individual buttons or patches of them which are dotted here and there over the costume. It is not as if these additions were really handsome. Not long ago they looked as if the wearer had saved up all her old glove buttons, and then had sewed them to her frock, for they were quite tiny and made of brass. Now, though they are larger, they are merely covered with the cloth of which the dress is made and are usually quite plain.

In some cases buttons show great beauty of design, and for this reason, if not on account of the material of which they are made, may be exceedingly valuable.

Bearing on the antiquity of buttons, we may say that they are found among prehistoric remains in this country, and though they were foreign to the ancient Egyptians, we learn (through the kindness of Professor Flinders Petrie) that engraved buttons or seals were usual from the sixth to the nineteenth dynasty, probably among foreign immigrants, for the designs are never true Egyptian. In the present year, 1907, Professor Petrie found a cornelian button with a copper shank which belongs to the twelfth dynasty.

The use of flowers, whether artificial or natural, on the person, and more particularly the wearing of feathers, also takes us back to the primitive instinct of early or uncivilized man.

In our own country the custom of wearing feathers is an exceedingly old one. The single upright specimens worn by the knights of the fourteenth century have been characterized as being preposterous in size. The plumes afterwards worn in helmets in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were also immense. In 1606, according to Nichol's "Progresses," on the occasion of the visit of Christian IV, some of the knights "wore strange feathers of rich and great esteem which they called Birdes of Paradice," and, unfortunately, ladies of the present day wear them still. In the reign of Edward IV, we learn, only men, practically speaking, wore feathers. They still survive in the army, but otherwise in the twentieth century, with the exception of an occasional small and modest instance amongst civilians, the wearing of plumes is confined to ladies.

Many flowers and feathers are exceedingly beautiful, and from an artistic point of view there seems little reason why we should allow civilization to sweep them away. We are quiet and colourless in our clothing, and if we are not careful the same element of dulness may creep into our lives. At the same time, however, to wear feathers which can only be obtained at the cost of cruelty or of depriving others of the sight of beautiful birds, or, again, of bringing any species to extinction, savours too much of barbarousness and thoughtlessness to be in any way condoned.

Ostriches are reared for their feathers, and the plumage of many birds that are killed for food is always at hand.

Men have much less opportunity now of showing any great individuality in their dress than heretofore, but sometimes they may be known by always wearing a buttonhole, even if that does not always consist of the same kind of bloom. The language of flowers, though now seemingly considered to be a dead letter, was hardly invented for nothing.

Of the brooch and its connection with the safety-pin we have already spoken. In many ornaments we find remnants of religious ideas; for instance, all brooches showing a crescent pattern or bearing the design of a hand are connected with the old phallic worship. The cross, it may be mentioned, is of much more ancient origin than Christianity, and is connected intimately with the swastika or fylfot.

The locket and other pendant ornaments must in many, if not all, cases be the descendants of amulets. The Arab women at the present day wear a little metal box containing a written talisman. An ancient Egyptian buried, with his mummies, many amulets and charms so that the soul, in obedience to various precepts, might enter into complete union with Ra, the solar god, and so accompany him on his journey round the world, and secure his everlasting protection.

It is due to these ideas that we owe the beautifully modelled figures of glazed pottery found in the Egyptian tombs. Many of them depict the various gods and goddesses acknowledged in Egypt, and they are usually pierced for attachment to the person. These were also carried on the person during life, and children especially were accustomed to wear them.

Old religious beliefs and superstitions that have not yet died out, have elsewhere given rise to the wearing of charms, and it is interesting to note that flint arrow-heads, under the name of "elves' arrows," were made into pendants by races who had reached the metal stage of culture.

Precious stones, upon which a word may be said here, no doubt at first were prized for their beauty alone, and then imagination gradually endowed many of them with fictitious properties and virtues, though doubtless the supposed attributes of some and the value and beauty of others have kept many precious stones in favour until the present day. Fashion is now particularly fickle as regards them, and craftsmen who deal with gems, feel her decrees[12] more keenly perhaps than any one else. Some half-dozen kinds of stones--such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, and turquoises--never go completely out of fashion, but even among these, one or other becomes paramount from time to time.

The topaz and chrysolite were reported to lose their brilliancy when placed in liquid that contains poison. To the amethyst was attributed the power of warding off the effects of drunkenness. The diamond, it was believed, gave to the wearers magnanimity, virtue, and courage. The ancients supposed that the opal shared the charm of every stone of which it reflected the colour, but when it was stolen, the thief became invisible, and was allowed to escape scot free. Mr. Claremont[13] has made an interesting suggestion as to the reason why the opal has been considered unlucky. The notion, he says, is not nearly so ancient as many of the superstitions relating to other stones, and probably does not date further back than the Middle Ages. The old name "ophal" was used as late as the time of Queen Elizabeth, and came from the Greek for "eye"-stone, and as eyes are unlucky even in peacocks' feathers, perhaps the explanation of the superstition lies in the name of the stone.

Such walking-sticks as those garnished with "sylver" and "golde," which are described as being at the Royal Palace at Greenwich in the reign of Henry VIII, may well be considered as ornaments. The same may be said of the be-ribboned canes of the exquisites of Charles II's and later times. We mention them because, within the last two or three years, there has been a talk of seeing "the nice conduct of a clouded cane" more generally considered, and some men have appeared at the theatre with long, gold-knobbed and tasselled canes.

The buckle, which may be ornamental or useful, or both, is well worthy of our attention. It consists in its simple form of a ring and a pin, and the latter is hinged on to the former. It is, in fact, much like a brooch, but without a hasp, and used in a different way. There are brooches, however, at the present day, which are even simpler in construction than the buckle, and they are used[14] even now by blacksmiths in Kirkudbrightshire, in the form of the iron ring and a horseshoe nail, with which they fasten their aprons. Similar pin-ring brooches were used in Ireland until quite recently and are known from early times. Mr. Edward Lovett[15] thinks that such a fastening may well have been derived from two bones of the sheep or deer, the garment being pulled through the ring formed by half the hip girdle, and speared through with the pointed heel bone.

A still more primitive pin was no doubt a thorn, and fish-hooks are to this day used on the coasts of Essex, which are made from the same natural object.