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60 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
of
union. The characteristic talents of each one will supplement and
complete those of the other, so that working together in harmony they
may accomplish far more for each other and for humanity in general than
either could do singly.
At an early date amber was brought from the Baltic coast to Rome, and Tacitus states that those who collected it called it glœsum, a
name later applied to the glass introduced into that region by Roman
traders. The natives knew nothing of the nature or growth of amber, and
had no use for the material, only collecting it for export to Rome,
where it commanded such a high price as to excite their astonishment.
Tacitus gives in the following words his theory of the origin and
character of amber—his chief error being due to his belief that the
substance was öf very recent formation.102
Now
you most know that amber is a juice of trees, since various creatures,
some of them winged, are often found in it. They have become entangled
in the liquid and then inclosed when the matter hardened. Therefore I
believe that, as incense and balsam are exuded in the remote East, so
ία the luxuriant groves and islands of the West are juices which are
forced out by the sun close to them. These flow into the neighboring
sea and are washed up by the tempestuous waves on the opposite shore.
If you test the quality of amber with fire, it may be lighted like a
torch and burns with a small, well-nourished flame; then it is resolved
into a glutinous mass resembling pitch or resin.
Both Juvenal103 and Martial104 relate
that effeminate Romans used to hold balls of amber in their hands to
cool them during the summer heat. If any such agreeable sensation was
really experienced, it must have been due to the well-known electric
properties of this substance. It is stated that the Chinese often place
pieces of amber on or in their
"Oornelil Taciti, "Libri qui supersunt," vol. ii, Lipsia, 1885, p. 243. "•Sat. vi, 572; ix, 50. «"Lib. ν, 37, 8; xi, 8, 6.
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