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Ch. 3: Talismanic Use of Special Stones

Ch. 3: Talismanic Use of Special Stones Page of 467 Ch. 3: Talismanic Use of Special Stones Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
     
     
 
54 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
About the middle of the past century, the demand for agate amulets was so great in the Soudan that the ex­tensive agate-cutting establishments at Idar and Ober­stein in Germany were almost exclusively busied with filling orders for this trade. Brown or black agates having a white ring in the centre were chiefly used for the fabrication of these amulets, the white ring being regarded as a symbol of the eye. Hence the amulets were supposed to neutralize the power of the Evil Eye, or else to be emblematic of the watchfulness of a guardian spirit. The demand for these amulets has fallen off greatly, but when it was at its height single firms exported them to the value of 40,000 thalers ($30,-000) annually, the total export amounting to hundreds of thousands of thalers. Even at present a considerable trade in these objects is still carried on. That there is a fashion in amulets is shown by the fact that, while red, white, and green amulets are in demand on the west coast of Africa, only white stones are favored for this us,e in Northern Africa.
There are a few talismanic stones which have gained their repute in our time, notably the alexandrite, a variety of chrysoberyl found in Eussia, in the emerald mines on the Takowaya, in the Ural region. The dis­covery of this variety is stated to have been made in 1831 on the day Alexander II (then heir-apparent) reached his majority, and it was therefore named alexandrite, by Nordenskjöld, the mineralogist. The stone as found in gem form rarely weighs over from one to three carats, and is characterized by a marked pleochroism of a splen­did green changing to a beautiful columbine red. But in Ceylon much larger gems are found, some few weighing
  
 
 
  
     
Ch. 3: Talismanic Use of Special Stones Page of 467 Ch. 3: Talismanic Use of Special Stones
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