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CALLAIS AND CALLAINA. 67
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had
hired to show me the way points out a footpath by the ride of the high
road, which I take, and ride on some time in the dark. Suddenly my
horse stands still, and will not move a step. I call my guide : he says
there is a well in the way, and that I must go back, the path being
very narrow. In turning my horse he stumbles, and puts his left foot
outside the path, towards the high road. Immediately 1 feel myself
falling, I throw myself out of the saddle upon the road, which was at
least ten ells lower down than the path. I fall on my side, and my
horse on his back close to me. The guide, not hearing me cry out or
speak, thought me crushed to death by the horse ; but I was safe and
sound, had suffered no harm at all, get on my steed, and pursue my
journey. But next morning, as I was washing my hands, I found my
Turquois split, and about a quarter of its substance separated from the
rest. I therefore got the larger portion of the stone reset, and
continued to wear it some years. One day in attempting to lift out of a
river, with a long pike, a weight beyond my strength, suddenly the
bones of my chest cracked as though a rib were broken, and I felt a
dull pain in the side. Thinking something was fractured, I examined,
and discovered that the lowest rib was displaced, and its end pushed
under the last but one. As the pain was slight, I applied no remedy to
the part affected ; but the same day, to my surprise, I see my Turquois
again broken in two, the smaller portion, however, being no bigger than
a hempseed ; but lest it should drop out, I had the larger portion,
retaining nearly all my arms, set in another ring, which I still wear
constantly."
'With,
the Germans it is yet the gem appropriated to the ring, the "gage
d'amour," presented by the lover on the acceptance of his suit, the
permanence of its colour being believed to depend upon the constancy of
his affection.
F 2
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