PRECIOUS STOXES. 51
Galen, Dioscorides, Cardamus, and other ancient writers on medicine, speak of their value in repelling disease.
" The Amulets, and Talismans held in the highest esteem," as we learn from " The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy," 1897,
were those in the form of Precious Stones. They were supposed to be
influenced in some mysterious way by the Planets, and to be the abode
of spirits.
Amongst
Highland superstitions that of the Evil Eye still finds its confident,
and timorous votaries. Cattle, and all kinds of property, are believed
to suffer thereby. It will deprive cows of their milk, and milk of its
nourishing properties, rendering it unfit for food. This superstition
can certainly lay claim to great antiquity. Virgil, Ossian, and other
classic writers have alluded fearsomely to its existence, and its
disastrous effects ! " Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos.''
M.
Victorien Sardou, the veteran French Dramatist, has related not long
ago that on the day he sought admission into the Societe des Auteurs
Dramatiques, he met a singular-looking old man, with hooked nose, and
reddish beard, excessively thin, and with a strikingly piercing glance,
suggesting altogether, one of the fantastic figures of Hoffman. It was
Jacques Offenbach, who, it appears, was credited with possessing the "
evil eye." Sardou adds, that he was no more superstitious then than he
is now ; but the fact remained, nevertheless, that until five years
after this ill-omened encounter he was not able to bring a single piece
to success. A charm against the evil eye consisted formerly of a quill
filled with mercury, sealed at each end, and worn bound , to the body.
