58 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
the different parts of the face collected and acting together through the metal."
"While
the various corundum gems, ruby, sapphire, Oriental topaz, Oriental
amethyst, etc., offer a remarkable instance of the many varieties of
beautiful coloration observable in a practically identical substance,
no single gem-mineral can be said to equal tourmaline in this respect,
more especially, however, in the combination of several colors
sometimes disposed in bands, at other times in concentric circles in
the same crystal. When to this we add its peculiar electric qualities,
we may truly say that a fine tourmaline answers our idea of what a
talismanic gem or a gem-amulet should be better than any other of the
beautiful crystals with which bountiful nature has provided us. These
most attractive stones are to be found in widely separated regions on
the earth's surface, as fine examples have been discovered in the
State of Minas Geraes, Brazil, and in our own land, in Maine and
California especially. Where the color is homogeneous we may have the
splendid red or rose-colored variety called rubellite, from its
resemblance to the ruby, or the blue tourmaline gem named indicolite.
In
times of old there was a belief that stones of various kinds would
guard against the assaults of evil in the form of witchcraft, disease,
and other disagreeable visitations. It was a warlike period in which
peace was an unheard-of doctrine, and now that the idea of peace has
become one of the ideals of present-day conditions, it is interesting
to know that nature has furnished us with a stone at once beautiful,
interesting, and illustrating the great fundamental principle of unity
and peace.
The
Peace Stone is formed by the union in one crystal of the green and the
red tourmaline, with an intervening band or zone of white, the latter
strikingly beautiful effect being due to the combination at this point
of the red coloring
