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Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
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NOTES.
423
property beyond the scope of reason. I can solemnly affirm that I always wear one set in a ring, the property of which I can never sufficiently admire. Thirty years ago it had been worn by a Spaniard living not far from my father's house. On his death, when his goods were sold off (as is the cus­tom with us), amongst the rest the Turquois was put up. No one, how­ever, would bid for it, although many had come to buy it on account of its choice colour in the lifetime of the former owner ; for it had entirely lost its original beauty and lustre, so that it looked more like Malachite than a Turquois. My father and brother were present, thinking to bid for the gem, which they had often admired aforetime, and were astonished at the change. My father, however, purchased it for a mere trifle, because every­body thought it was not the same that the Spaniard used to wear. When my father came home, thinking it scorn to wear so ugly a gem, he made me a present of it, saying, ' Since the story is that a Turquois, to exhibit its power, must be presented \vhen one is at home, I now make you a gift of it.' I took the gem to an engraver to cut my arms upon it, as is done upon Jasper, Calcedony, and other cheap stones, not choosing to wear it, having lost all its beauty, merely as an ornament. I received it back from the engraver, and wore it for a signet-ring. Hardly was it on my finger a month when its original colour returned, though not so bright as before, in consequence of the engraving and the inequality of its surface. Everybody was surprised, more especially as the colour grew finer every day. Per­ceiving this, I never took it oft' my finger, just as I do still. Its wonderful virtue in the case of a fall (if really proceeding from it) 1 have myself ex­perienced. For returning on horseback to Bohemia from Padua, where I had taken my Doctor's degree, a guide I had hired to show me the way shows me a footpath by the side of the high road, which I take, and ride on some time in the dark. Suddenly my horse stands still, and will not move a step. I call my guide : he says there is a well in the path, and that I must go back, the path being very narrow. In turning my horse he stumbles, and puts his left foot outside the path, towards the high road. Immediately I feel myself falling, I throw myself out of the saddle upon the road, which was at least ten ells lower down than the path. I fall on my side, and my horse on his back close to me. The guide, not hearing me cry out or speak, thought me crushed to death by the horse ; but I was safe and sound, had suffered no harm at all, get on my steed, and pursue my journey. But next morning, as I was washing my hands, I found my Turquois split, and about a quarter of its substance separated from the rest. I therefore got the larger portion of the stone reset, and continued to wear it some years. One day in attempting to lift out of a river, with a long pike, a weight beyond my strength, suddenly the bones of my chest cracked as though a rib were broken, and I felt a dull pain in the side. Thinking something was fractured, I examined, and discovered that the lowest rib was displaced, and its end pushed under the last but one. As the pain was slight, I applied no remedy to the part affected ; but the same day, to my surprise, I see my Turquois again broken in two, the smaller portion, however, being no bigger than a hempseed ; but lest it should drop
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