In pagan times in Europe, the ring seems to have been connected with fidelity or with espousals. A form of betrothal ring called a gimmal, or linked ring, was used in later times. By an ancient Norse custom, described in the Eyrbrygia Saga, when an oath was imposed, he by whom it was pledged passed his hand through a silver ring, sacred to that ceremony; and in Iceland the ceremony of betrothal used to be accompanied by the bridegroom passing his four fingers and thumb through a large ring, and in this manner receiving the•frand of the bride, as represented in a woodcut in an old edition of Olaus Alizgnus. As lately as 1780 the practice existed in Orkney of a man and woman plight ing their faith at the standing stones of Stennis by joining their hands through the perfo rated stone of Win.
Rings were greatly used in ancient Egypt. They were called lebh, finger-rings, and khatem, signets, both kinds being represented in the sculptures and mentioned in the hieroglyphs. Besides these two classes, solid rings of gold and silver were used as money. Rings for the fingers are of the most remote antiquity, and were the emblems of rank and power. They w, re of two kinds; the solid ring, made of gold, silver, cop per, or iron, having a square or oval bezel, on which the subject to be impressed was sunk or cut in intaglio. The oldest of these were of gold, iron not having been in use till the Roman rule over Egypt, or about the 1st c. A.D. A remarkably fine specimen is one of a Hemphite priest or flarneu of the monarch Cheops, who lived in the time of the 26th dynasty, about the 5th c. B.C. But rings of this class are probably nut so old as the other kind, which have a square or oblong plinth of gold, stone, or glass, on which the subjects are engraved also in intaglio. These plinths are pierced through their long
axis to admit the metal ring on which they revolve, and are secured to it by wire coiled round the ring at the place of insertion. Scarabaei of glazed steatite, set in frames of gold or silver, were often used for bezels. The bezels have their base engraved with hieroglyphs and other subjects, the names of monarchs, figures of deities, mottoes, and devices. Such rings were used by functionaries; and in the account of the investiture of Joseph in the book of Genesis, a ring was put on his finger as it symbol of his rank. The poorer classes had rings of ivory or blue porcelain, with solid oval bezels, having in intaglio similar subjects. Rings appear to have been placed on all the fingers, and even the thumb, and the hands of ladies were loaded with these costly ornaments. A cat, emblem of the goddess Bast or Pasht, the Egyptian Diana, was a favorite subject of ladies' rings. The third finger of the left hand was the ring finger. Sonic remarka ble instances of gold rings with revolving bezels have been found, as that of .Thothmes III. in the collection of lord Ashburnham, and another with the name of the monarch Horus, which contained gold to the value of £20. Such rings could give two impres sions, like the seal and counter-seal of modern times.—Wilkinson, Mann. and Gust., vol. iii. pp. 370 and foil. • Bonomi, Trans. R. Soc. Lit., new series, vol. i. p. 108; Prisse, Non. Egypt., P1. xlvii.; also Antique Gems and anus, by King, 2 vols. 1872; Finger Ring Lore, by William Jones, F.s.a., 1876.