Fabulous Stones and Fossils Kunz: Magic of Jewels Page 226



	196 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS

	dites, or "ox-hearts." This name is already employed hy Pliny. The hysterolithus was used to cure various female diseases, and to the bucardites was accorded among other virtues that of increasing the wearer's courage.⁷⁹ The hysterolithus is believed to be the same as the autoglyphus mentioned by pseudo-Plutarch as having been found in the river Sagaris, in Asia Minor. Its peculiar shape was regarded as symbolizing Cybele, the mother of the gods, and the story ran that if one of the unfortunate male victims of Eastern jealousy should obtain a stone of this kind he



	would become reconciled to his sad lot and would cease to regret his lost manhood. If we were inclined to accord the title of precious stones to stones greatly esteemed for their talismanic virtues, a high place in this category would be assigned to the sâlagrâma-stone of the Hindus.⁸⁰ Among the aboriginal inhabitants of India this was regarded as a symbol of the female principle in nature, and of its representative the goddess Prakrti, and in the later Hindu belief the stone was looked upon as the special emblem of the god Vishnu, the "Preserver," the second personage of the Hindu Trimurti. It is therefore ardently revered by those who are more espe- ™ Valentini, " Museum museorum, oder Vollständige Schau-Bühne," Frankfurt am Main, 1714, vol. ii, p. 11. ^M See, in regard to this stone, Oppert, " Der Salflgrâma-Stein," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, XXXIV Jahrgang, Berlin, 1902, pp. 131-137.