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MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 71
stones,"
according to the legend, were quite useful to Alexander in his
campaigns, for if they were attached to the necks of horses or beasts
of burden, the horses would not neigh, and the other animals would be
equally mute as long as they bore the stones, so that the passage of
the army would not be revealed to the enemy. The ' ' night-stones, ' '
on the other hand, produced an entirely opposite effect, for when
wearing them the animals uttered their respective cries unceasingly. We
are not told that Alexander ever nsed them to provide an animal
symphony as martial music for his soldiers.
Referring
again to the subject of amber, as the objects placed in Roman
sepulchral urns were always chosen be-, cause of some supposed
religious or talismanic quality, there is considerable significance in
the fact that an urn of this type, preserved by Cardinal Farnese,
contained a piece of amber carved into the figure of an elephant.
Coming down to modern times, there is record that the Macdonalds of
Glencoe handed down as heirlooms four amber beads said to cure
blindness, and there seems reason to conjecture that this substance was
sometimes credited with being an antidote for the poison of
snake-bites, as a small perforated stone used as late as 1874 in the
Island of Lewis for this purpose appears to be a semi-transparent amber.129
Indeed, amber set as a jewel to cure rheumatism is said to be offered
for sale in London to-day, and the writer has learned that the late
Eev. Henry Ward Beecher long carried amber beads with him to ward off
this malady.
m Nona
Lebour, " Amber and Jet in Ancient Burials," reprint from Transactions
of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian
Society, Not. 27, 1914, pp. 4, 5.
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