to
the wearer the love both of gods and men ; and prescribes it as a sure
test for ascertaining if a wife has been faithful to her lord during
his absence, for if put under her pillow as she sleeps, she will, if an
adulteress, be dashed out of bed by its influence.
"
If e'er thou wish thy spouse's truth to prove, If pure she's kept her
from adulterous love, Within thy bed unseen this stone bestow,
Muttering a soothing spell in whispers low ; Though wrapp'd in slumber
sound, if pure and chaste, She'll seek to strain thee to her loving
breast : But if polluted by adultery found, Hurl'd from the couch she
tumbles on the ground."—Ver. 312.
Marbodus
adds another more mischievous (if possible) quality : that its powder
strewn secretly upon the embers will drive all the inmates out of a
house panic-struck, and give the operator an opportunity to rob it
unmolested.
"
If a sly thief slip through the palace door, And strew unseen hot
embers on the floor, Then powder'd loadstone on these embers spread,
The inmates flee, possess'd with sudden dread. Distraught with horrid
fear of death they fly, Whilst from the square the vapour mounts on
high. They fly : within the house no soul remains, And copious spoils repay the robber's pains."—Ver. 305.
Orpheus
(636) sings, moreover, at great length the mystic virtues of the
Hœmatites ; not, however, the magnetic ore just noticed, but a soluble
oxide of iron, of a styptic quality, and an excellent medicine for the
eyes (see p. 208).
The
Loadstone was used in glass-making, being supposed "to attract to
itself the liquid of the glass in the same way as it does iron "
(xxxvi. 66). Probably it acted as a flux in promoting the union of the
silica with the soda. Oxide of iron is now used in enamels to produce a
red ; perhaps therefore the Loadstone was the basis of the opaque red
glass, Pliny's Haematinon, so much introduced into the later Roman
mosaics. As the green and blue tinge of common glass is due to the
small proportion of iron found in the unpurified ingredients used in
the manufacture, the remarkably deep blue and green characterising
Roman glass, as seen in the more frequent specimens, may
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