Magic Stones and Electric Gems
Magic Stones and Electric Gems
WHILE the precious and semi-precious stones were often worn as amulets or talismans, the belief in the magic quality of mineral substances…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Virgin
This so-called galactite, which enjoyed such an extraordinary reputation in ancient and medieval times, is not, properly speaking, a stone…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Gesner
A kind of galactite, evidently a finely deposited form of carbonate of lime and perhaps absorbent, is mentioned by Conrad Gesner. This was…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Arabic
Among the many stones or concretions endowed by medieval belief with wonderful powers, may be reckoned the "rain-making" stones. Some of…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Rabbinical
A mysterious stone mentioned in Rabbinical legend is called the shamir. This word occurs three times in the Old Testament (Jer. xvii, 1…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Greek
The Hebrew shamir and the Greek were both used metaphorically of hardness of heart and implacability. The Hebrew prophet Zechariah (vii…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Sovranty
The "Gem of Sovranty," or the "Gem of the King of Kings," may have been a purely poetic Hindu fancy, or possibly may have been the diamond…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Hofmann
An exceedingly rare medal, and one of great interest to students of alchemy, was struck in 1647 by order of Emperor Ferdinand III from gold…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Malays
The mesticas of the Malays represent a class of stones differing in important respects from the various types of bezoars. A principal…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Rumphius
Rumphius declares that many extraordinary cases were related of warriors who could not be injured by any weapons until the mestica had been…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Pebble-mania
Pebble-mania or lithomania is an inherent trait in all mankind. From the most primitive man to the most modern, especially those of…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Clan
A famous Scotch amulet was a polished globular mass of white quartz, an inch and three-quarters in diameter, owned by the chiefs of Clan…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Arkansas
In Yucatan quartz crystals were not only used for divining, but also to ensure the success of the crops. The fact that such crystals have…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Indian
The presence of white quartz pebbles in some graves of the Indian Moundbuilders, appears to be indicated to a satisfactory extent in the…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Maine
In many graves of the primitive Red-paint People of Maine, small pebbles have been found. As they were not large enough to have served as…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Collection
Most wonderful specimens of rutilated quartz are the great, rich brown, possibly titanium-colored masses in the Morgan Collection at the…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Indians
Catlin states that at the time of his visit the "pipe-stone" quarry was guarded with a certain religious reverence from the visit of the…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Fairy
The popular fancy for the "Fairy Stones" from a peak of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Patrick County, Virginia, is said to be directly…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Hindu
Collections of stones and pebbles, often of little or no intrinsic value but supposed to possess occult powers, are handed down from father…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: France
That a child could be cured of disease by being passed through an aperture in one of the sacred stones that had formed part of a dolmen is…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Richard
To a mass of quartz at Jerbourg, Guernsey Island, local fancy has attached a wild legend, which finds expression in the strange designation…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Ardmore
A rock in Ardmore Bay, Ireland, is known as the St. Declan Stone, after the first bishop of Ardmore, who came to Ireland even before the…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Roland
A mass of calcareous stone in a village called Piada de Roland, situated in the commune of Toufailles (dept. Tarn-et-Garonne), France…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Expanding
In the rock of St. Gowan's chapel in Wales was a natural cavity upon which the name of the Expanding Stone was bestowed by popular…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Dutch
In connection with this pretty recital it is interesting to note that the first chance observation of the attractive qualities of…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Theophrastus
Such is the confusion in the statements made by the early Greek and Latin writers as to the emerald, under which generic name they seem to…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Lemery
The attractive properties of the tourmaline are said to have been first brought to scientific notice by M. Louis Lemery, in a report made…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Haberden
Toward the middle of the eighteenth century Dr. Haberden, of London, confirmed the deductions of Lemery and the somewhat later experiments…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Stone
The Peace Stone is formed by the union in one crystal of the green and the red tourmaline, with an intervening band or zone of white, the…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Rome
At an early date amber was brought from the Baltic coast to Rome, and Tacitus states that those who collected it called it glaesum, a name…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Germany
Not only for curative purposes and for general use as an amulet was amber prized, but an amber necklace was sometimes regarded as an…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Taprobane
An early version of the strange tale that ships were attracted by masses of rocks, or even mountains of loadstone, is given by Palladius…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Boot
An ingenious magnetic oracle is described by De Boot. This consisted of a round board, about the edge of which were marked the letters of…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Magnes
That the loadstone was highly esteemed in the sixteenth century was well versified by Robert Norman in "The Newe Attractive." The Magnes or…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Europe
In medieval Europe this mineral was greatly valued for its therapeutic virtues. Trotula, the first of the female physicians connected with…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: India
In the sixteenth century in India, it was believed that a small quantity of loadstone taken internally preserved the vigor of youth, and…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Jewels
In Persia a certain stone received the name of Shahkevheren or "King of Jewels," for it was reputed to attract all other precious stones…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Aristotle
In the ninth century Arabic treatise, translated from an earlier Syriac text and falsely attributed to Aristotle, a number of fabulous…
Magic Stones and Electric Gems: Alexander
The Arabic Aristotle relates many wonderful tales of stones found by Alexander the Great during his Asiatic campaigns (327-323 B.C.). While…