238 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
like
a blazing torch.* A similar description is that retailed by Lucian in
bis account of the statue of the Syrian Goddess (Astarte). " The
goddess wears on her head a gem called Lychnis (lamp-stone), a name
derived from its nature; for from it a great and shining light is
diffused in the night-time, so that the whole temple is thereby lighted
up as though by many lamps burning. By day the lustre is more feeble,
nevertheless it still presents a very fiery appearance."f Alardus, a
Dutchman, writing in the year 1539, caps this legend with the following
wonderful account of a similar gem : " Amongst other stones of the most
precious quality, and therefore beyond all price and not to be valued
at any equivalent of human riches, the gift of that most noble lady
Hildegarde, formerly wife of Theodoric Count of Holland, which she had
caused to be set in a gold tablet of truly inestimable value dedicated
by her to St. Adelbert, patron of the town of Egmund ; amongst these
gems I say was a Chiysolampis, commonly called an Osculan, which in the
night-time so
