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MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 69
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est
of the Sassanian monarchs, Khusrau II (590-628), had occasion to test
the power of this wonderful stone. He had lost a ring of great price in
the river Tigris, near the spot where some time later the Mohammedans
founded the city of Bagdad. Taking a shahkevheren the monarch
attached it to a line and literally fished for his ring, using the
magic stone as a bait. We are told that the ring was recovered, and
this must have greatly added to the reputation of the "King of Jewels."124
In
the ninth century Arabic treatise, translated from an earlier Syriac
text and falsely attributed to Aristotle, a number of fabulous stones
are noted. All of these were said to have attractive properties, and as
the loadstone attracted iron, they attracted various substances, each
having its special affinity. First, we are told of the stone that
attracted gold, then, in turn, of stones that attracted silver, copper,
and other metals.125 Probably the legend of the finding of
these stones is based upon the employment of certain mineral substances
in the purifying of gold, silver, etc. Among other fabulous or almost
fabulous stones was one called askah, which, although of mean appearance, was able to break the diamond just as the diamond broke all other stones.126
Have we here an allusion to the polishing of the diamond by its own
dust? It is not improbable that this art, in an incomplete form, was
known to the Hindus long before it was practised and perfected in
Europe.
The
stone that attracted hair was the lightest of all stones and very
fragile; a piece as large as a man's fist weighed but a drachm. It
looked like a piece of fur, but when touched was found to be a stone.
The strange powers of this extraordinary substance could easily be
demon- '
»D'Herbelot, "Bibliothèque Orientale," La Haye, 1778, p. 229. m Rose, " Aristotle de lapidibus und Àrnoldus Saxo," in Zeitech. für D. Alt., New Series, vol. vi, 1875-™ Ibid., p. 358.
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