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168 PRECIOUS STONES.
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to have crushed Topazes to powder between his fingers.
Orpheus,
as quoted by W. King, says concerning Agate, another of the numerous
Quartz varieties : " If thou wearest a piece of the Tree-Agate on thy
hand, the immortal gods shall be pleased with thee; if the same be tied
to the horns of thy oxen, when ploughing, or round the plowman's sturdy
arm, ' wheat-crowned ' Ceres shall descend from heaven with full lap
upon thy furrow."
" Of the stone which hight Agate " (saith the Book of Saxon Leechdoms, 1864)
" it hath eight virtues for them who hath this stone with them ;
against thunder, sorcery, fiendish possession, venom, or poison,
disease, the evils of strong drink, and outbreaks on the skin."
Agates
embody minute particles of Iron in their structure; and thereto their
varieties of colour are due. During the Middle Ages the Agate was
considered hostile to poisons, and it was therefore made into drinking
cups, and other such vessels. Or, another method for securing its
protection was for the servants to touch all foods or cooking utensils
with the Agate before serving provender therein. The Prophet Isaiah
makes a laudatory allusion to this stone; "I will make thy windows of
Agates."—
"
Who comes in summer to this earth, Owing to June his day of birth, If
wearing Agate on his hand, May all the joys of life command."
" In shape no bigger than an Agate stone On the forefinger of an Alderman."
Borneo and Jidiet; Act I., Sc. 4.
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