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FACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT PRECIOUS STONES 379
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Mohammedans
may be noted its power to preserve the equanimity and gravity of the
wearer in the midst of disputes or inordinate laughter. A special and
peculiar utilization of this material was to employ splinters of it as
toothpicks. Their use not only whitened the teeth but also prevented
bleeding of the gums. The Prophet, according to tradition, asserted
that the wearer of a carnelian ring would never cease to be happy and
blessed.3
The
chrysolite is now regarded as a semi-precious stone only, yet
Shakespeare presented this gem as the type of excellence in its kind
when he wrote ("Othello," Act V, Scene 2) :
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It
is interesting to note that this appreciation of the beauty of the
chrysolite is also shown in an old Greek glossary of alchemical terms,
where occur the words : Ιερός λίθος è<n\ Χρυαόλίβοί, "Sacred stone means the chrysolite."*
Such
was the sacred quality ascribed to strings of coral beads in some parts
of Africa, not long since, that they were regarded as the most precious
gifts a ruler could bestow. If the favored recipient were so
unfortunate as to lose this royal donation—which was a mark of high
rank—he himself, as well as all involved in the theft, incurred the
penalty of death. A writer of the seventeenth century, Palisot de
Beau-vais, relates that in Benin human victims were sacrificed at a
"coral festival," when the corals of the king and royal family were
dipped in the victim's blood, so as to placate the coral fetish and
ensure a further supply of the precious
•Edmond
Doutté, "Magie et Religion," Alger, 1909, pp. 83, 84. ♦Berthelot,
"Collection des anciens alchemiates grecs," Paris, 1888, 1889, toL i, p. 9 of text.
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