4 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
another
variety had alternate red and white stripes or veins." Perhaps this
''emerald" was a variety of jade, or a banded jasper.
This
so-called galactite, which enjoyed such an extraordinary reputation in
ancient and medieval times, is not, properly speaking, a stone, but a
nitrate of lime. The strange and famous relics of the Virgin preserved
in many old churches and called "the Virgin's milk," were merely
solutions of this nitrate. Possibly pieces of this so-called galactite
were sometimes found by pilgrims in the grotto of Bethlehem, and were
supposed to be petrified milk.6 As everything in this sacred
spot was regarded as connected in some way with the miraculous birth of
Christ, it is easy to understand why the devout pilgrims came to
believe that the milky-hued substance represented the milk of the
Virgin, which had been preserved for future ages in this extraordinary
way.
A
kind of galactite, evidently a finely deposited form of carbonate of
lime and perhaps absorbent, is mentioned by' Conrad Gesner.7
This was found on the Pilatus Mountain, Lake Lucerne, and is described
by Gesner as being a "fungous and friable" substance, white and
exceedingly light in weight. The natives called it Mondmilch (moon-milk)
and it was sold in the pharmacies of Lucerne. The powder was used by
physicians in the treatment of ulcers, and, like all the other
galactites, it was supposed to increase the flow of milk and to develop
the breasts. Besides this it was credited with somniferous virtues.
An
old Mohammedan tradition, cited by Ibn Kadho Sho-bah in his Tarik
al-Jafthi, relates that Noah, after the deluge, on setting out with the
members of his family to
* Plinii, " Naturalis historia," Lib. xxxvii, cap. 59.
'De Mély, in La Grande Encyclopédie; ari. pierres précieuses.
'Conrad! Gesneri, "De rerum fossilium," etc., liguri, 1565, foL 49 verso.
