Magic Stones and Electric Gems Kunz: Magic of Jewels Page 17



	MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 5 settle and populate the regions to the eastward and northward of Mt. Ararat, confided to their care a miraculous stone known to the Turks as jiude-tash, to the Persians as senkideh and to the Arabs as hajer al-mathar, or the "rain-stone." On it was impressed the word Aadhem or Aazem, the great name of God, by virtue of which whosoever possessed this stone could cause rain to fall whenever he pleased. In the long lapse of time this particular "precious" stone was lost, but some of the Turks were said to have certain stones endowed with a like power, and the more superstitious among these Turks solemnly asseverated that their "rain-stones" could beget progeny by a mysterious kind of generation.⁸ Among the many stones or concretions endowed by medieval belief with wonderful powers, may be reckoned the "rain-making" stones. Some of these were to be found in Karmania, south of Khorassan. The miraculous effect was produced by rubbing one against another. The Arabie author who reports this declares that this rain-making power was a well-known fact. He adds that similar stones might be secured from near Toledo in Spain and also in the "land of Kimar," inhabited by Turkish tribes.⁹ The Oriental rain-stones noted by pseudo-Aristotle and by many other Arabic writers of medieval times, can be paralleled by similar rain-making or rain-inducing stones in many other parts of the world and among many primitive peoples even in modern times. The rain-makers of the African tribe of Wahumas, dwelling in the region bordering on the great Albert Nyanza Lake in Central Africa, use a black stone in the course of their magic rites. This is put * Giovanni B. Rampolli, " Annali Musulmani," vol. ix, Milano, 1825, p. 481, note 75. * " Exposition de ce qu'il y a de plus remarquable et des merveilles," by Abdorrashish, surnamed Yakuti, a geographical work of the fifteenth century, transi, into French and published in Notices et Extraits des Manuscrite de la Bibliothèque du Boi, vol. ii, pp. 452, 520, 534; Paris, 1789.