of New Guinea who pay no attention to gold, live in regions the gold of which had undoubtedly been worked in the past.[1]
In Egypt and Babylonia gold and precious stones played an important part in magic: they were also identified with the chief deities, and many amulets were made of them. In the age in India when the tales of the northern home of the Blest were written, it was believed that gold was endowed with the most potent qualities. Listen to the words of the Atharva Veda, which was written just as the later ideas were beginning to become prominent.
"The gold that, born out of the fire, immortal, maintains itself over mortals—whoso knows it, he verily merits it; one that dies of old age becomes he that wears it.
"The gold, of beauteous colour of the sun, that men of old with their progeny sought—that, shining, shall unite thee with splendour; of long life becomes he that wears it.
"For life-time thee, for splendour thee, and for force and for strength—that with brilliancy of gold thou mayest shine out among the people."[2]
Again, we are told that "gold, doubtless, is a form of the gods . . . gold is immortal life . . . gold, indeed is fire, light and immortality."[3] Similarly the pearl was endowed with life-giving properties.[4] These statements do not leave any room to doubt the attitude of such men towards gold, pearls and other substances: they were regarded as forms of immortal life; and desired as such.
The ideas of the Chinese are similar. In their Tao system, which includes the belief in the Isles of the Blest, there is much mention made of various "givers of life," prominent among them being gold, jade, pearls and other
- ↑ Chinnery, E. W. P., "Stone-work and Goldfields in New Guinea," Journal Royal Anthropological Institute, xlix. 1919.
- ↑ Whitney, W. D., Atharva Veda Samhita, xix. 26, p. 937 (Harvard Oriental Series, vols. 7, 8, Cambridge, Mass. 1905.
- ↑ Satapatha-Brahmana, pt. v. "Sacred Books of the East," xliv. 1900, pp. 187, 203, 236, 239, 348-50.
- ↑ H. Bloomfield, Hymns of the Atharva Veda, S.B.E. xlii. 1897, iv. 10.
