SUPERSTITIONS AND THEIR SOURCES 15
written
at the end of the eleventh century, and often quoted as that of Evax;
indeed, it purports to be by him and really contains a good part of the
material composing the treatise of Damigeron or Evax. At the same time
Marbodus drew freely upon Pliny, either directly or through Isidorus.
For the Middle Ages this poem of Marbodus, already translated into Old
French in the twelfth century, became known as the "Lapidario" par excellence, and
furnished a great part of their material to medieval authors on this
subject. Soon, however, extracts from the Arabic sources became
available, and the whole mass of heterogeneous material was worked
over and recombined in a variety of ways.
This
complex origin of the traditions explains their almost incomprehensible
contradictions regarding the virtues assigned to the different
stones, and also the fact that the qualities of one stone are
frequently attributed to another one, so that, in the later works on
this subject, it becomes quite impossible to present a satisfactory
view of the distinguishing qualities and virtues of the separate
stones. The habit of copying, without discrimination or criticism,
whatever came to hand, and the aim to utilize as much of the borrowed
material as possible, is scarcely less a characteristic of the
seventeenth and eighteenth century writers than it is of those of a
later date. This is in part an excusable and
