TALISMANIC USE OF PRECIOUS STONES 95
The
same writer attempts an explanation of the popular fancy that when
powdered loadstone was thrown upon coals in the four corners of a
house, the inmates would feel as though the house were falling down; of
this he says: "That seemynge is by mevynge [moving] that comyth by
tornynge of the brayn."9Ö
In
classical writings the fascination exercised by a very beautiful woman
is sometimes likened to the attractive power of the loadstone, as
notably by Lucian,91 who says that if such a woman looks at
a man she draws him to her, and leads him whither she will, just as the
loadstone draws the iron. To the same idea is probably due the fact
that in several languages the name given to the loadstone indicates
that its peculiar power was conceived to be a manifestation of the
sympathy or love of one mineral substance for another. This is commonly
believed to be the sense in which we should understand the French
designation aimant, namely, as the participle of the verb aimer, "to love"; however, some etymologists prefer to derive the word from adamas, sometimes
used in Low Latin for the loadstone, although properly signifying the
diamond. It is certainly worthy of note that in two such dissimilar
languages as Sanskrit and Chinese, the influence of this idea appears
in the names given to the loadstone. In Sanskrit the word is chum-baka or "the kisser," and in Chinese f su shi, or
"the loving-stone." Chin T'sang Khi, a Chinese author of the eighth
century, wrote that "the loadstone attracts iron just as does a tender
mother when she calls her children to her.92
*°Bartolomsei Anglici, "De proprietatibus rerum," 1. e. "Lucian, Imag. I.
K Klaproth, " Lettre à M. le Baron A. de Humboldt sur l'invention de la boussole," Paris, 1834, p. 20.
