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Noble corundum of other colors than those of blue and red is not of abundant occurrence, nor is it ordinarily as highly prized as are the sapphire and ruby. Colorless sapphire, or leucosapphire, is some­times used as a substitute for the diamond, from which it can readily be distinguished by its lower hardness and higher specific gravity.
Certain specimens of both sapphire and ruby, but especially the former, exhibit when polished a six-rayed star. This appears as beams of light, radiating from a center which changes in position as the stone is turned. Such stones are called star, or asteriated sapphires, or rubies, and are highly prized. They are usually cut with rounded surface, as this best brings out the figure. The cause of the star-shaped figure is generally supposed to be the total reflection of light from countless microscopic cavities in the stone, which are arranged parallel to the faces of a six-sided prism. Some authorities believe, however, that mul­titudes of twining lamellas similarly arranged cause the appearance.
Burton, the African traveler, is said always to have carried a star sapphire about with him, as a means of winning respect from the barbarous peoples among whom he journeyed. The savages believed that the stone must be a talisman of great power and feared to incur its owner's enmity.
Sapphire is a word which is the same in nearly all languages, a fact which testifies to the ancient use of the stone. In Chaldean, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin the word has the same form as in mod­ern tongues. In early times sapphire was believed to be a destroyer of poison, so that if put into a glass with a spider or venomous reptile it would kill it. It was regarded also as a remedy against fevers if placed on the heart, or soaked in vinegar and the extract admin­istered. The wearer of a sapphire was rendered by it chaste, virtuous, pious, devout, and wise.
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