174 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
name
of "the pregnant stone," there is every reason to believe that it was
already known of three or four, or even more centuries before their
time.33
Marbodus of Rennes calls this stone "the guardian and defender of nests."34
Enclosing as it did one or more smaller stones, it was thought to be
symbolically designated as an aid to parturition. According as it was
attached to the left arm or to the left thigh, it either retarded or
accelerated the natural processes. This, however, by no means
exhausted the virtues of the stone, for when worn on the left arm of
man or woman, it conferred sobriety, increased riches, and moved the
wearer to love ; it also brought victory and popularity, and preserved
children from harm. In addition to all its other powers this stone
seems to have possessed a certain detective quality, to judge from the
following words of Aetius, who wrote in the sixth century a.d. :35
The
setites serves to discover thieves, if anyone places it in the bread
which they eat ; for whoever has committed a theft is unable to consume
the bread. It has also been stated that, if cooked with any kind of
food, the aetites unmasks thieves, since they cannot eat such food. If
taken with wax from Cyprus, with fresh olive oil, or with any other
calefacient, this stone greatly helps those suffering from rheumatism
and paralysis.
The loose, enclosed concretion was named in Latin callimus, and
we have a detailed description from the sixteenth century of one of
these, which belonged to Georgius Fabricius. Because of its curious
markings he had it set on a pivot in a ring, so that both sides of the
stone could be easily seen. The material was in part as clear as a
rock-crystal, evidently a very translucent chalcedony, but the
"Theophrasti,
"De lapidibus" (Peri lithôn), ed. by John Hill, London, 1746, p. 16;
cap. 10; see Hill's note, pp. 16-19. "Marbodei, loc. cit. M Aëtii, Tetrabiblos, Basile«, 1542, p. 77.
