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Ch. 1: Pantarbes

Ovum Anguinum, Druid's Bead Page of 384 Ch. 1: Pantarbes Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
PANTARBES.                                259
PANTARBES.
PlinY has no mention of this marvellous gem, but later writers have more than made up for the omission. Apol­lonius Tyaneus, according to Philostratus, saw it during his visit to India, and brought back the following account (iii. 46). It was as big as the thumb-nail, of a fiery colour and luminous by night. It was generated at four cubits' depth underground ; but so forcible was the exhalation from it as to cause the superincumbent earth to crack and thus betray its existence. It eluded the touch of the vulgar, and could only be drawn forth by means of certain rites and charms known to the Brahmins alone. But its peculiar virtue was that of attracting all other precious stones ; for if any number of the latter were dropped into a river or even into the sea, and this gem were let down attached to a string, they all clustered about it like a swarm of bees around their queen, no matter how far dispersed at first, and were drawn up adhering to it.
Such a gem naturally was invested with the most wonderful virtues of another kind. By means of such an amulet Chariclea escapes unharmed from the pyre to which she had been condemned by the jealous Arsace (AEthiop. viii. 11); inasmuch as she had secreted about her the espousal-ring of King Hydaspes, " which was set with the stone called Pantarbes, engraved with certain sacred letters, embodying, as it has proved, some divine charms, by means of which a virtue is imparted to the gem antagonistic to
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Ovum Anguinum, Druid's Bead Page of 384 Ch. 1: Pantarbes
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