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240 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
stone" dating from 1654, but this is of a different type, being a porous sandstone.68
Even
in South Africa snake-stones are known, but it appears that the few
specimens reported had been brought thither from the Dutch East Indies;
one such stone had been handed down for generations in a Dutch
settler's family. Prom their appearance some of these snake-stones were
judged to be pieces of burnt hartshorn. A Boer farmer owned an amulet
of this kind that he would loan from time to time to neighbors who
might have need of it. On one occasion, when the daughter of an English
hunter had been bitten by a snake, the father sent off a man on
horseback to borrow this snake-stone. Owing to the unavoidable delay,
some hours elapsed before it could be applied to the wound. The girl
recovered after its use but the wound did not heal satisfactorily, and
this was attributed to the length of time that had intervened between
the attack of the snake and the use of the remedial stone.69
In December, 1887,70
the writer described a white opaque variety of hydrophane with a white,
chalky or glazed coating, which had recently been brought from a
Colorado locality. The absorbent quality of this stone is quite
remarkable, and when water is allowed to drop on it, it first becomes
very white and chalky, and then gradually perfectly transparent. This
property is developed so strikingly that the finder proposed the name '
' Magic Stone" for the mineral and suggested its use in rings, lockets,
charms, etc., to conceal photographs, hair, and other objects, which
the wearer wishes to reveal only as caprice dictates.
·*
Dr. H. C. White, " The Chemical and Physical Characters of the
So-called * Mad-Stones,' " British Association for the Advancement of
Science, 73d Report, Meeting of 1903 at Smithfield, London, 1904, p.
605.
"" Lancet," vol. 164, Jan-June, 1903, p. 343.
"American
Journal of Science, vol. xxxiv, Dec., 1887. See also Kunz, " Gems and
Precious Stones of North America," New York, 1892, p. 144.
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