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PRECIOUS STONES.
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" Incolumes pueros dat vivere, sive puellas, Atque caducorum (epileptics) fertur prohibere ruinas."
Again,
a certain Stone—the Galactides, (known to the old Magii under various
names,)—was credited with powers identical with those attributed to
Aladdin's Lamp in the Arabian Nights tale. Ghosts could be
called up thereby, to answer questions, and to confer benefits. It
further possessed the faculty of re-uniting in love people who were at
variance. A test of its genuineness was to smear one's body with honey,
and then expose it to the flies : when, if the stone was true, the
flies, and bees, kept off.
Other
less precious stones,—now disused as such, and not of import for our
present purpose, so as to merit any detailed notice here,—were the
Amianthus (feathered alum); the Jew's Stone,—Lapis Judaicus;—and the
Osteocolla,—bone-binder. Only one variety of Amianthus (Hornblende) is
used in the arts ; viz., Asbestos, so called by the ancient Greeks
because believed to be " unquenchable " by flame ; for which reason
wicks were made of its long flexible fibres, towards maintaining the
perpetual sacred fires of the temples. Napkins of Asbestos could be
cleansed by being thrown into the fire ; and Asbestos-cloth was used in
the process of cremation, to keep the ashes of the body distinct from
those of the fuel.
Cloth
made of Asbestos (Amianthus), when greasy, or otherwise dirty, may be
cleansed by throwing it into a bright fire. Thereby the stains are
burnt out, whilst the cloth remains entire, being presently restored to
a dazzling whiteness. Kircher, the German philosopher, had a lamp-wick
made of asbestos, which
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