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PRECIOUS STONES
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ill luck, but Queen Victoria gave to each of her daughters on their marriage opals and diamonds.
Tradition
gave the chrysolite wonderful powers. It would fade and dull if brought
near poison, recovering at once on the removal of the poison. If cast
into boiling water, it so immediately assuaged the heat that one might
safely put one's hand in also. It was a remedy for cholera and
distemper of the brain, and drove away nocturnal fears.
Pearls worn upon the person were believed to be good for the sight.
A
turquoise received as a gift, and worn in a ring of gold, preserved men
from falls; it also took all enmity from between man and wife. One
writer stated that he saw a turquoise which upon the death of its
master not only lost all beauty, but contracted a cleft. The beauty
returned and the cleft disappeared when a new master bought it for an
under price. That same veracious author asserted that the turquoise
pales if its master grows infirm and weak, but at once recovers its
natural color and beauty if the health of the wearer returns.
The
diamond was considered a safeguard against mania, an antidote for
poison, and a preservative of virtue. In ancient times it was used to
detect infidelities, for, if placed upon the head of one sleeping, it
compelled the disclosure of the secrets of the bosom. Writers stated
that it was so hard that, if one were placed on an anvil and struck a
prodigious blow, it would break both the anvil and hammer. Authorities
of the day said it would resist fire and could not be burnt. This
superiority to steel and fire could be overcome, however, by soaking
the stone in fresh, warm goat's blood. Then, by a blow sufficiently
strong, the diamond would be broken and fall into pieces so small as to
be almost imperceptible, but the anvil would be broken also.
A priest taught that whoso carried a transparent crystal of quartz in his hand when he entered the temple might be
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