CRYSTAL BALLS AND CRYSTAL GAZING 223
One
of the largest and most perfect crystal balls is in the Dresden "Grune
Gewolbe" (Green Vaults). This weighs 15 German pounds and measures 6
2/3 inches in diameter; it was undoubtedly used for purposes of augury.
Ten thousand dollars was the price paid for it in 1780.
A
crystal ball known as the Currahmore Crystal, because it is kept at
the seat of that name belonging to the Marquis of Waterford, has long
enjoyed and still enjoys the repute of possessing magical powers. It is
of rock-crystal, and the legend runs that one of the Le Poers brought
it from the Holy Land, where it had been given him by the great
crusader Godefroy de Bouillon (1058-1100). The ball is a trifle larger
than an orange and a silver ring encircles it at the middle. The chief
and much-prized virtue of this crystal is its power to cure cattle of
any one of the many distempers to which they are subject. Its
application for this purpose is rather peculiar, for the cattle are not
touched with it, but driven up and down a stream in which it has been
laid. Not only in the immediate neighborhood of Currahmore is resort
had to this magic stone by the peasants, but requests for its loan are
often made from far distant parts of Ireland. The privilege is almost
always accorded and has never been abused, the crystal being in every
case conscientiously returned to its rightful owner.72
The
names "ghost-crystals," "phantom-crystals," "spectre-crystals,"
"shadow-crystals," etc., are applied to a form of quartz in which the
crystallization was interrupted from time to time, so that in the
transparent successive layers there is an occasional opaque layer,
" Lady Wilde, " Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland," Boston, 1888, p. 209.
