R I N 
several passages, in Scripture, and from Quintus Curtius, 
who tells us, that Alexander sealed the letters he wrote into 
Europe with his own seal; and those in Asia, with Darius’s 
ring. 
The Persians will have Guiamschild, the fourth king of 
the first race, to have first introduced the ring,, for sealing 
his letters and other acts. The Greeks, Pliny thinks, knew 
nothing of the ring in the time of the Trojan war; the rea¬ 
son he gives is, that we find no mention of it in Homer, but 
that when letters, &c. were to be sent away, they were tied 
up, and the strings knotted. 
The Sabines had rings in Romulus’s time 5 and it is to 
them, probably, the practice first came from the Greeks 5 
and from them that it passed to the Romans ; though it was 
some time before it got footing there. Pliny cannot learn 
which of the kings of Rome first adopted it; but there are 
no signs of it in any of their statutes, before those of Numa 
and Servius Tullius. He adds, that it was also in use among 
the ancient Gauls and Britons. 
The composition of the ancient rings was various. There 
were some of one single metal, and others of a mixture, or 
two. For the iron and silver were frequently gilt; or at 
least the gold part was fixed within the iron, as appears from 
Artemidorus, lib. ii. cap. 5. The Romans were contented 
with iron rings a long time ; and Pliny assures us, that 
Marins first wore a gold one in his third consulate, which 
was in the year of Rome 650. Sometimes the ring was iron, 
and the seal gold ; sometimes it was hollow, and sometimes 
solid; sometimes the stone was engraven, and sometimes 
plain ; and the graving sometimes was in relievo, and some¬ 
times in ereux; the last were called gemma ectypae; the 
former gemmae sciilptura prominente. 
From Jeremiah, chap. xxii. it appears, that the Hebrews 
wore the ring on their right hand. Among the Romans, 
before they came to be adorned with stones, and while the 
graving was yet on the metal itself, every one wore them at 
pleasure, on what hand and finger he pleased. When stones 
came to be added, they wore them altogether on the left 
hand; and it would have been held an excessive foppery 
to have put them on the right. 
Pliny says, they -were at first worn on the fourth finger; 
then on the second or index; then on the little finger; and 
at last on all the fingers, excepting the middle one. 
The Greeks wore them altogether on the fourth finger of 
the left hand, as we are informed by Aul. Gellius, lib. x. 
and the reason he gives for it is, that having found from 
anatomy, that this finger had a little nerve that went straight 
to the heart, they esteemed it the most honourable, by rea¬ 
son of this communication with that noble part. Pliny 
says, the Gauls and ancient Britons wore the ring on the 
middle finger. 
At first they only wore a single ring, then one on each 
finger, and at length several on each finger. (Martial 
lib. xi. epig-. 6D.) At last one on each joint of each finger. 
(Aristop. in Nub. &c.) This foppery at length arose to 
that pitch, that they had their weekly rings. 
Juvenal, Sat. vii. speaks of annuli semestres; as also of 
winter and summer rings. But of all others, Lampridius, 
cap. 32. observes, that Heliogabalus carried the point 
farthest, who never wore the same ring, or the same shoe, 
twice. 
Rings have been also worn in the nose, and as pendants in 
the ears. Bartholin has an express treatise, 5 ‘ De Annulis 
Narium,” Of Rings of the Nostrils. St. Augustine assures 
us, it was in his time the fashion of the Moors; and Pietro 
della Valle observes the same of the modern orientals. 
In effect, there is no part of the body where rings have 
not been worn. Several East India travellers affirm, that 
the natives now commonly wear them on their nose, lips, 
cheeks, and chin. . Ramusio tells us, that the ladies of Nar- 
singuay, in the Levant, and Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii. 
that those of Ethiopia used to adorn their lips with iron 
rings. 
As to the ears, the custom still obtains of wearing rings in 
them, both of men and women, almost all over the world. 
Vol. XXII, No. 1487. 
R I N 105 
The Indians, particularly the Guzzarats, have worn rings 
on their feet. And when Peter Alvarez had his first audi¬ 
ence of the king of Calicut, he found him all covered with 
stones set in rings, having bracelets and rings both on the 
hands and fingers, and even on the feet and toes. 
Louis Bartome, represents a king of Pegu as still more 
extravagant, having rings set with precious stones on every 
toe. 
The ancients had three kinds of rings which served 
to distinguish conditions or quality. Pliny assures us, 
that the senators at first were not allowed to wear 
the gold ring, unless they had been ambassadors at some 
foreign court. Nor was it even allowed them to wear 
the gold ring which was given them in public, except on 
public occasions; at other times they wore an iron one. 
And those who had a triumph observed the same rules. 
At length the senators and knights were allowed the 
common use of the gold ring; but Acron on Horace, lib. ii. 
sat. vii. observes, they could not do it unless it were given 
them by the prsetor. 
In after days the gold ring became the badge of the 
knights, the people wearing silver rings, and the slaves 
iron ones; though the gold ring was sometimes also al¬ 
lowed the people, and Severus granted it to his common 
soldiers. Augustus allowed it to the liberti or freedmen; 
and though Nero made a regulation to the contrary, yet it 
was soon set aside. 
Another kind of rings comprehended the annuli sponsa- 
litii, wedding-rings. Some carry the origin of this custom 
as far back as the Hebrews, on the authority of a text in 
Exodus, xxxv. 22. Leo of Modena, however, maintains,, 
that the ancient Hebrews did not use any nuptial ring. 
Selden, in his Uxor. Ebraica, lib. ii. chap. xiv. owns, that 
they gave a ring in the marriage, but that it was only in 
lieu of a piece of money of the same value which had 
used to have been given before. The Greeks and Romans 
did the same, and from them the Christians took it up very 
early, as appears from Tertullian, and in some ancient 
liturgies, where we find the form of blessing the nuptial 
ring. 
The third kind of rings included those used as seals, called 
cerographi or cirographi; an account of which, see under 
the article Seal. 
Richard, bishop of Salisbury, in his Constitutions, anno 
1217, forbids the putting of rush rings, or any the like matter 
on women’s fingers, in order to the debauching them more 
readily; and he insinuates the reason of his prohibition, 
that there were some people weak enough to believe, that 
what was thus done in jest was a real marriage. 
De Breveil, in his Antiquities of Paris, says, it was an 
ancient custom to use a rush-ring in the nuptials of such as 
had cohabited before their marriage. 
RING, in Astronomy. The ring of Saturn is a thin, broad, 
opaque, circular arch, encompassing the body of that planet, 
like the horizon of an artificial globe, without touching it, 
and appearing double, when seen through a good telescope. 
See Astronomy, vol. ii. 387. 
To RING, v. a. pret. and part, pass: rung, [hpmjan, 
Saxon.] To strike bells or any other sonorous body, so as 
to make it sound. —Ring the alarum bell. Shakspeare .— 
[From ring.~\ To encircle. 
Talbot, 
Who, ring'd about with bold adversity, 
Cries out for noble York and Somerset. Shakspeare. 
To fit with rings. 
Death, death; oh amiable lovely death ! 
Thou odoriferous stench, sound rottenness, 
Arise forth from thy couch of everlasting night. 
Thou hate and terrour to prosperity, 
And I will kiss thy detestable bones. 
And put my eye-balls in thy vaulty brows. 
And ring these fingers with thy houshold worms. 
Shakspeare. 
2 E To 
