255 



Sring, with only a variation of the initial guttural, will give the same 

 idea of pnrity, by transfer of the subjective to its objective consequence ; 

 for, though the idea of purity, and consequently of sanctity and truth, 

 be not inherent in our present use of the word ring, yet its earliest use 

 as the symbol in acts where purity is especially implied, in the mar- 

 riage ceremony, proves its ancient acceptance amongst us in this 

 meaning. 



Pdngs were originally, no doubt, an entire circle. The easy fabri- 

 cation of a circle, and their Greek and Latin denominations, circulus or 

 /cf/cXo 9, prove this evidently ; but the Latin synonyms for orbis terrarum, 

 as mundus, which also signifies clean, give us again the primitive mean- 

 ing of the Saxon ring for purity. It is therefore in accordance, that, 

 though we find no classical use of the ring in the marriage ceremonies 

 of either Greeks or Eomans, we find it iu their usages where faith and 

 truth are implied; in their compacts and agreements of amity and peace. 

 This usage derives from the earliest periods of history ; but the Greeks 

 and Romans may have derived the practice more immediately from the 

 East and Persia, where existing monuments sufficiently evince its fre- 

 quent and solemn use. In the numerous engravings with which Sir 

 E. Ker Porter has illustrated his Persian travels, the examples are fre- 

 quent. 



In vol. i., at page 571, plate 27, we have two examples at ]N'akshi- 

 rajab, in which the sacred girdle or guebre belt adds force to the adjuration 

 of the ring, the girdle being, no doubt, the antitype of the Catholic stole, 

 the imposition of which on the joined hands is a portion of the sacra- 

 mental rite of marriage in that religion. 



At page 548 is the representation of a large rock sculpture atE'akshi 

 Roustam : two sovereigns on horsebackhold a ring conjointly in each right 

 hand, over a battle-field, as evinced by the corpses beneath their horses' 

 feet : an early example of a lelle alliance or more modern enteinte cor- 

 diale. 



At page 520 are two standing figures, with rings and concomitants, 

 which would require a long dissertation, and repay the labour, at a more 

 fitting opportunity. A priest of Mithras is emphatically blessing the 

 act with joined hands. 



In plate 40 we have a procession following the sacred bull, and in 

 the tier next below we have a person bearing perhaps the monarch's 

 sword, and after him follows another, bearing two rings in his hand, the 

 exact prototypes of a very heavy golden one, dug up in Bornholm, and 

 now in the Royal Museum at Copenhagen ; but this latter is too narrow 

 to encircle any portion of the human body, is without the lips, and only 

 a thick solid bar of the valuable metal turned over at both ends so as to 

 be capable of being grasped only by the closed fist in the act of adjura- 

 tion or abjuration. 



As we are at present not writing a history of these rings, but only 

 of their uses, it may be unnecessary to prove that they are found both 

 annular and penannullar in iron strongly oxidized, in hronze finely pa- 

 tinated, in .silver more rarely, but frequently in gold, and of great 

 weight. 



