68 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
In
this case an antidote was found in the emerald, and we are assured that
if a solution made from this stone were taken thrice a day for nine
consecutive days, the melancholia would pass away.121
In
the sixteenth century in India, it was helieved that a small quantity
of loadstone taken internally preserved the vigor of youth, and Garcias
ab Orta relates that a king of Ceylon, when an old man, ordered that
cooking utensils of this material should be made for him, and had all
his food cooked in these. Grarcias claims to have this information direct from a Jew, Isaac of Cairo, who was ordered to make the vessels.122
A
loadstone amulet for the cure of gout is stated to have been worn by a
native of the English county of Essex. The stone was sewed up in a
flannel covering ta which was attached a black ribbon for suspension
from the neck. Of course it was worn beneath the clothing, although the
enÂcasing flannel must have prevented direct contact with the skin.
This piece of magnetic iron ore measured about an inch and a half in
width, and was two-tenths of an inch thick. The patient, a Mr. Pelly,
was an elderly man, who had suffered for some time from annually
recurring attacks of gout which prostrated him for from three to four
months. Learning of the reputed virtues of loadstones, more esÂpecially
of those of Qolconda, he sent to India for one and he is said to have
been thereby relieved of his disease.123
In Persia a certain stone received the name of Shahkev-heren or "King of Jewels," for it was reputed to attract all other precious stones, as the loadstone did iron. The great-
mAldrovandi, "Museum metallicum," Bononi*, 1648, pp. 564, 566.
"Garcias
ab Orta, "Aromatum Materia" (Latin version by Clusius), Antverpite,
1579, p. 178. See also Valentine Ball in Proc. Roy. Ir. Soc., 3d Ser.,
vol. i, p. 662; Colloquy xliii, of the work of Garciae, translated from
the Portuguese original.
"* William Jones, " Credulities Past and Present," London, 1880, pp. 160, 161 ; citing " Panorama," vol. vii.
