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PANTARBES. 259
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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
s 2
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