invested gems with supernatural qualities follows:
Agate.—Emblem
of health and wealth; inimical to venomous things; alleviates thirst;
gains victory for its possessor; stays storms; sharpens sirht;
increases strength; and—a quality that should make it welcome to
orators and lecturers —renders its wearers gracious and eloquent. The
Mohammedans believed it would cure insanity when powdered and
administered with water or apple juice.
Pierre de Boniface, writing in 1315, said:
" The agate of India or Crete renders its possessor eloquent and prudent, amiable and agreeable."
Dioscorides, in his Materia Medica, prescribes agate as a preventive of contagion.
Amber
was believed to be good for stomachache, fits, scrofula, and jaundice.
The amethyst —emblematic of sincerity—lost its colour in contact with
poisons, and was an antidote for them. It dispelled sleep, sharpened
the wits, and promoted chastity; while being a sure preventive of
intoxication. Beryl was the favourite stone for divination; reinforced
with potent incantations, it foretold the future and reviewed the
past. The bloodstone, if rubbed with the juice
