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250 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
bathes
it, and the water thus used is highly valued for its sin-repelling
properties. Colebrook again describes the stone as round and black,
perforated with spiral holes a.s if by worms, done by Vishnu's own
fingor, the forms and number of which typify the god under different
characters. The substance is silicious. They arc found in the Gandaci
river in Nepal. The agreement in colour, weight, and spiral arrangement
of the " deep-furrowed lines," proves the Orites and this stone to have
been identical. Observe, it is given to Helenus by Apollo, who
answers to the Hindoo Crishna, the most splendid of Vishnu's avatars.
The Magi may easily have got the stone from the Brahmins along with so
inany other particulars of their religion.
The Goa-stone was
in the 16th and 17th centuries as much in repute as the Bezoar, and for
its similar virtues. It got the name from being brought by the
Portuguese from their East Indian colony. It is of the shape and size
of a duck's egg, has a greyish metallic lustre, and, though hard, is
friable. The mode of employing it was to take a minute dose of the
powder scraped from it in one's drink every morning, when wonderful
results were promised in the preservation of the health. The substance
is evidently a metallic compound, and somewhat resembles calomel in the
mass. So precious was it esteemed that the great usually carried it
about with them inclosed in a case of gold filigree.
The Memphitic kind of the marble Ophites,
which approached in fineness of quality to a precious stone (geminantis
naturae), was employed by surgeons as an anaesthetic agent. Powdered
and mixed with vinegar, the paste was smeared over the parts that had
to be cauterised or amputated. " By this application the body loses all
pain, becoming as it were benumbed " (Plin. xxxvi. 1 i ). An attempt
has lately been made to revive the use of local anaesthetics in modern
surgery.
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