cause of the many superstitions connected with it. Even the name "amethyst", meaning "not touched" (from the Greek Amethystos), derives
from a superstition. It was supposed in ancient days that the wearer of
an amethyst could not be made drunk. This function, unhappily, has not
been authenticated by modern scientific methods.
After
amethysts, a moonstone, a moonstone of Ceylon. Ceylon is the home of
the moonstone, and the plentiful gem is cut cabochon fashion by native
craftsmen in the island and shipped out to grace a multitude of cheap
settings all over the world.
I
was fond of my moonstone. Its slightly milk-bluish lazy sheen reminded
me of pale moonlight. I loved to think that moonstones were made by the
breaking-off of minute portions from the moon itself, which after
travelling about a while in space finally reached earth. I could never
think why pieces of moonstone should not occasionally rain down in the
Vienna streets, squares and parks. I knew they did not, for I often
looked, and it is this, perhaps, that has given me a slight stoop that
I have kept ever since.
However,
I still had my own moonstone, and sometimes it caused me some anxiety
when I was lying awake in bed thinking. I knew the superstition
sometimes mentioned by my elders that if one looked long at the moon
one became so possessed by a desire to draw near to her that in the
stillness of the night one was impelled to leave one's bed, open the
window, climb upon the roof and stretch out for a moonbeam whereby one
could swing
