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Callais, Turquois

Callais, Turquois Page of 453 Camahutum, Cameo Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
140
CALLAIS AND CALLAINA.
strangest upon his own experience. Thus, besides strengthening the eyes, and cheering the soul of the wearer, it took upon itself the consequences of any fall that might happen to him; by cracking itself saving him the fracture of a bone. It grew paler as its wearer sickened, lost its colour entirely on his death, but recovered it when placed on the finger of a new and healthy possessor. Suspended by a string and within a glass, it told the hour by the exact number of strokes against the sides.
Hence it was sought after above all other gems. De Boot, in 1609, remarks that no gentleman then (ladies did not wear it) thought his hands properly ornamented, or his elegance complete, without the acquisition of a fine Turquois. One the size of a large pea used to sell for 10 thalers; but if it attained the size of a hazel-nut (the utmost limit then known), it was worth 200 or even more.
There are some grounds for the conjecture that the Callaina may have been the softer variety of the Chrysolite, called Olivine from its colour. It is a silicate of Magnesia coloured green by iron, and possessing considerable lustre, though now but little valued by jewellers. It is found in rounded masses in the cavities of Basalt and of Lava : characters bearing some analogy to the Callaina " sticking upon rocks, and protuberant like an eye." The difficulty of polishing the stone, which does not exist in the case of the Turquois, applies strongly to every species of Peridot. Augites (Eye-stone) Pliny notices was considered by many to be synonymous with the Callaina :" it may perhaps be but an accidental coincidence of names, but the substance now called Augite is generally found in company with the Olivine in the Basaltic matrix : being nearly the same in chemical consti­tution, but black and unfit for employment as a gem.
The Olivine is the only precious stone of the existence of which beyond the limits of our world we have actual proof, for grains of it have been discovered filling the cavities of aerolites, from whatever unknown regions in space these objects may have emanated.
6 " Augitis non alia videtur multis esse quam Callaina."
Callais, Turquois Page of 453 Camahutum, Cameo
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