|
52 . PRECIOUS STONES.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Equally
superstitious, as it would appear, are the Highland means resorted-to
for the cure of calamities thus caused ; such as the use of certain
charms, the repetition of strange, uncouth rhymes, the putting live
trout ill some of the spoiled milk, and many other such credulous
appliances.
Witches
were formerly believed capable of killing with the " evil eye," slaying
with lightning, passing through key-holes, riding through the air on
broomsticks, and performing many other weird marvels. Epileptic
seizures were attributed to the malign influence of witches, who were
said to make two covenants with the devil: one public, and the other
private. The devil was supposed to bestow Amulets upon them, and
mischievous philtres.
Among
the Bedouin tent-dwellers of Palestine it is customary even now to
suspend over a child's primitive wooden cot, or cradle, a blue bead for
averting the evil eye.
"
That invisible Corpuscles may pass from Amulets," saith the Honble.
Robert Boyle, " or from other external remedies, into the Blood, and
Humours, and there produce great changes, will scarcely seem improbable
to him who considers how perspirable, according to Hippocrates, a
living body is ; and the Vegetable, and Animal bodies may well be
supposed to send forth expirations, since even divers Minerals are
found to do the like ; as may appear by the odorable steams of rub'd
Brimstone, and Amber, without their sensibly losing anything, either of
their bulk, or weight."
Maecenas, the famous patron of Quintus Flaccus Horatius, was a passionate lover of Gems, and Precious Stones (b.c. 28). " Not merely," (C. W. King, 1885),
|
||
|
|
||