however, is occasionally paid for a particularly large and finely
carved specimen. This substance is also worked up into charms and other
small ornaments which are sold to tourists, the annual sales of all
descriptions amounting to some $10,000 annually. Catlinite takes a fine
polish and is easily worked; a peculiarly attractive variety is red
with white and gray spots.
The
popular fancy for the "Fairy Stones" from a peak of the Blue Eidge
Mountains, Patrick County, Virginia, is said to be directly traceable
to the tale, ' ' Trail of the Lonesome Pine," by John Fox, Jr., who
makes one of these pretty staurolite crystals exercise an important
influence over the destinies of his hero and heroine. This was cleverly
utilized by the manager of a New York theatre, when he gave a souvenir
performance of a dramatized version of the story, by presenting one of
these "Fairy Stones" to each lady in the audience, a gift not only in
perfect rapport with the play, but one highly appreciated by
the recipients, few of whom were not unconsciously influenced by the
symbolic half-religious, half-mythical quality ascribed to this
attractive little gem.
Collections
of stones and pebbles, often of little or no intrinsic value but
supposed to possess occult powers, are handed down from father to son
in many Hindu families of the poorer class. The accompanying
illustration shows an aged Hindu, as he appeared to a recent
traveller, decorated with such stones to the number of about three
hundred on a ceremonial occasion. In this case they were all pierced
and threaded on cords, so as to be attached to the person, and the old
man proudly declared that, thousands of years ago, one of his ancestors
was a playmate of the god Krishna, who had bestowed the stones upon him
as a special mark of divine favor.
The presence of erratic boulders was accounted for by
