KNOW THE GAMS

Another symbol found in cultures as different as the American Indian and the ancient Persian, with slight variations, is the swastika. Despite its association with Hitler in the twentieth century, the symbol is an old one and the name comes from a Sanskrit word having to do with one's welfare or good luck. It ha• been explained as representing the four cardinal points of the compass (east, west, north, and south); lightning, fire, or water or even the human form. In later years, attempts have beemade to relate it to the cross.

Whatever the original symbolisrand however it was used before Adolf Hitler, it was always ergraved as a good luck charm. Carvings could also be made of the heads or figures of animal• A lion carved on a garnet would preserve the health and wealth c .the wearer. A ram on a sapphire exalted the wearer with dignities and honor. Quartz carved with the figure of a man with one hard upraised was said to be powerful against lawsuits.

Today, some of these beliefs may seem amusing. At the same time, they are still with us in the shapes and forms of jewelry, not to mention the gems themselves. Birthstones, for example, are supposed to confer special gifts on the persons wearing them who a-e born in the particular month for which they stand.

The idea of wearing your own birthstone is relatively recent dating back only to eighteenth-century Poland. The idea of a gem for every month is far older. It is tied in with the number 12: the months of the year, the 12 signs of the zodiac, the 12 apostles :Christ, and originally to the 12 tribes of Israel and the breastplate of high priest Aaron.

In Exodus, one of the oldest books of the Bible, God gives instructions for the making of the breastplate. On it, in four rows of e stones, are to be set different gems on which are carved the names of the tribes of Israel. Although the gems differ depending on translation, what is striking is that the gems are 12 different colors. They were most likely either red jasper or carnelian, topaz or rot, garnet, emerald, sapphire, diamond, amber or brown agate, and white banded agate, beryl, amethyst, onyx, and green jasper.