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52 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
is
laid against her cheek, her feverish restlessness gradually disappears
and gives place to tranquil sleep. More than this, she is aware of a
species of subconscious sympathy with the tourmaline. So intense is
this sympathy that although the child consented to part with her
crystal that it might be offered as a unique specimen to a foreign
museum, and was heart-broken to learn that through some carelessness it
had been lost while being taken thither, she recognized its presence
long years after, when, travelling in Europe as a young bride, she
entered the cabinet of an enthusiastic collector to view his specimens,
and was in no wise surprised when she really found her "Stonie" there
among his prized tourmalines.
In
connection with this pretty recital it is interesting to note that the
first chance observation of the attractive qualities of tourmalines is
said to have been made in Amsterdam by a group of Dutch
children whose attention had been attracted by a number of tourmaline
crystals brought from the Orient, and who were puzzled to see bits of
ash and straw attracted to the stones. This came to the knowledge of
some Dutch lapidaries, who for a time called the stone Aschentrekker,
or "Ash-Attractor."89 Our name tourmaline is derived from turmoil, the name given the stone by the natives of Ceylon.
There seems some little likelihood that certain examples of the gem called lychnis and
noted by Pliny may have been varieties of the tourmaline. As the first
tourmalines brought to modern Europe came to Holland from Ceylon, we
might conjecture that those kinds of lychnis said by Pliny to
have been brought from India had a like origin. Of these Indian
specimens, the finest examples of this gem, one kind resembled the
carbuncle or ruby, while another bore the designation Ionia because
its color was like that of the violet
• The Germans called it Aschenzieher.
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