stone. Eighteen centuries before the Christian era the emperors of the Shang dynasty used it in the state ritual, paying homage to the east with a green jade tablet, to the south with a red tablet, to the west with a white tablet, and to the north with a black tablet. According to Confucius, "its sound, pure and sonorous, with its peculiarity of ceasing abruptly, is the emblem of music; its splendor resembles the sky, and its substance, drawn from mountain and stream, represents the earth." An ancient caravan trade in this stone is commemorated by a portal in the Great Wall called the Jade Gate.

The Amazon stone which the Spaniards obtained from the South American Indians was jadeite. By them as well as by their conquerors it was thought to be a cure for diseases of the kidneys, hence its name of nephrite. A revived interest in jade followed American exploration. Historically it has been treasured as a cure for colic and for diseases of the spleen and loins; hung against the stomach, Galen believed it a remedy for cramps. It was a good-luck charm, and, fashioned into drinking cups, a detector of poisons, which foamed against the brim. It survives in art and symbolism after having passed out of magic and medicine.

Many of the old traditions about stones persist in popular belief, which holds certain kinds of gems and individual jewels as lucky or unlucky; and in fashion, which assigns to each month its appropriate birthstone. It was supposed that the garnet preserved health, that the ruby was a remedy for plague, that the turquoise protected from accident, that the eagle-stone would promote childbirth, that the emerald would prevent epilepsy, that the topaz would cure insanity, that lapis lazuli was a purgative, and bezoar antidotal. Jasper was a febrifuge and rock crystal quenched thirst. An amethyst would prevent intoxication, a bloodstone would confer the gift of prophecy, a chrysoprase would cure cupidity, a sapphire would defend against enchantments, an agate would avert a tempest, a carbuncle would give light in the dark, an opal would dispel despondency, an emerald would break if worn in the commerce of the sexes, and a diamond under a woman's pillow would discover her incontinency.

In Christian symbolism, jasper signified the foundation of

the church, emerald the freshness of piety, beryl the illumination of the divine spirit. Sapphires typified the heavenlyminded, chrysolite those who let their light shine in word and deed, chalcedony those who fast and pray in secret.

However vain the pagan jewel-lore from which Christian borrowings were made, the ideas it arrays are older than the conception of precious stones as mere adornment. These things were sought and worn at first as life-givers and luck-bringers, and not because they were beautiful. Justinus Kerner is of those writers who contend that primitive man was so attuned to nature that "even the spirit of the stone, now grown dull and sluggish, was capable of affecting him." Only when persons are under the influence of magnetism, says this writer, are they susceptible to the inherent powers of precious stones; because that state was in a measure the normal state of early men they found greater medicinal virtue in gems than in roots and herbs. The Wonders of Countries

The travelers of yesterday found marvel awaiting them in every land. The sun of India, Ctesias says, appears to be ten times larger than in other countries, and for four finger-breadths downward the surrounding seas are so hot that fish cannot come near the surface. It is so hot in Ormuz, says Maundeville, that "the Folk lie all naked in Rivers and Waters, Men and Women together, from nine o'clock of the Day till it be past the Noon." In the Persian city of Susis, says Strabo, "lizards and serpents at midday in summer cannot cross the streets quick enough to prevent their being burnt to death midway by the heat." Setting one thing against another, Diodorus says that in Scythia by the force of cold even brazen statues are burst asunder, while “in the utmost coasts of Egypt and the Troglodytes the sun is so scorching hot at midday that two standing together cannot see each other by reason of the thickness of the air.”

Ctesias speaks of a fountain in India which swims every year with liquid gold, and out of which are drawn a hundred earthen pitchers filled with the metal-melted ore, suggests Lassen. There is growing upon Mount Ida in Scandia, says Father Jerom Dandini, "a herb whose virtue is to gild the teeth of those animals that eat of it; one may believe, and with good

reason, that this proceeds from the golden mines which are in that ground." Herodotus reports the Thracians as saying that the country beyond the Ister (Danube) is possessed by bees, wherefore travelers cannot penetrate it; these may have been mosquitoes. At the altars of Mucius in the country of the Veii, and about Tusculum and in the Cimmerian Forest, says Pliny, there are places in which things that are pushed into the ground cannot be pulled out again.

Geographical marvel may be brought down almost to date with Humboldt's report on the moving "stone of the eyes" in South America, which the natives believed to be both stone and animal; and with Irving's account of the extinct thunderbolts which the plains Indians told him they sometimes used for arrow heads. So armed, a warrior was invincible, but he vanished if a thunderstorm arose during battle.