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212 The True or Oriental Cat' s Eye.
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This
gem is valued principally according to the perÂfection and brilliancy
of the luminous line, which should be sharp and well-defined, not very
broad, and should run evenly from end to end across the middle of the
stone. The colour does not much influence the value, some jewellers
preferring one tint, some another. On the whole, perhaps, the most
popular tints are honey colour, clear apple-green, and dark olive: all
of these form a splendid back-ground, and contrast well with the line.
It is quite impossible to give any satisfactory scale of values for
this gem, its estimation depending much on personal appreciation and
taste.
In
India it has always been much prized; it is held in peculiar veneration
as a charm against witchcraft, and is the last jewel a Cingalese will
part with. The specimens most esteemed by the Indians are those of a
dark olive colour, having the ray so bright on each edge as to appear
double. It is indeed wonderfully beautiful, with its soft, deep colour,
and mysterious gleaming streak, ever shifting, like a restless spirit,
from side to side as the stone is moved ; now glowing at one spot, now
at another. No wonder that an imaginative and superstitious people
regard it with awe and wonder, and believing it to be the abode of some
genii, dedicate it to their gods as a sacred stone.
It
should be pointed out that much confusion exists with reference to the
Cat's Eye, since this name is also applied to certain fibrous varieties
of Quartz. The presÂence of parallel fibres of asbestos included in the
Quartz,, gives rise to a more or less definite band of light, with a
silky lustre, running across the direction of the fibres when the stone
is cut with a convex surface (en cabochon). This chatoyant quartz is found largely in Ceylon, and on the west coast of India, where it is known as " Coast Cat's
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