To drink of a potion made from the sapphire was said to be helpful for those who had been bitten by a scorpion, and for those suffering from intestinal ulcerations, or from growths in the eye; it also prevented boils and pustules, and healed ruptured membranes.[[319]] Here we see that the sapphire shared with the emerald the power of strengthening the sight, and one authority asserts that if anyone looked long and intently at a sapphire, his eyes would be protected from all injury, and nothing harmful could befall them.[[320]]
A medieval test of the antitoxin quality of the sapphire was to place a spider in a vessel to whose mouth a sapphire was so suspended that it would swing backwards and forwards just above the spider. The supposedly venomous insect was not long able to resist the power of the stone and fell a victim to its virtues. Wolfgang Gabelchover gravely asserts that this experiment had often been successful.[[321]]
The removal of particles of sand or dust from the eye was said to be successfully accomplished by “warming” a sapphire over the eye, the virtue of the stone thus passing into the eye and giving the organ the strength necessary for the ejection of the troublesome foreign body.[[322]] This attribution of a chemical action to the sapphire in eye-trouble may be added to the many statements of its general curative powers in eye-diseases.
Topaz
The thirteenth century Hindu physician Naharari states that the topaz tastes sour and is cold. It is a remedy for flatulence and is a most excellent appetizer. Any man who wears this stone will be assured of long life, beauty and intelligence.[[323]] Many a curious legend has been woven about the old belief that the topaz quenched thirst. However, popular fancy does not endow any and every topaz with this power. One of these thirst-removing topazes is said to have been in the possession of a celebrated Hindu necromancer, whose services had been sought by one of the petty rajahs of India on the day of a decisive battle. Either this necromancer’s art must have failed him at the critical moment, or else a more powerful enchanter guided the fortunes of the enemy, for the latter prevailed and the owner of the potent topaz was left dying upon the field of battle. Alongside him was a poor wounded soldier who was clamoring for a drop of water to quench his burning thirst. Hearkening to this prayer, the dying necromancer threw his topaz to the soldier, telling him to place it upon his heart. No sooner did he do so than his thirst passed away, and we must suppose that his wounds were also healed, for we are told that on the morrow he sought everywhere on the battle-field for the corpse of his benefactor but could find no trace of it.
1. Emerald that belonged to the deposed Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid; weight 45.33 carats. Auctioned December 11, 1911, Paris.
1½. Side view of the emerald.
2. Almandite garnet (transparent) fashioned into a knuckle bone; on the upper surface is engraved an eagle with outspread wings, above which are the Greek characters κακγ. Charm seal of some early knuckle-bone player.
3. Sardonyx idol-eye of a Babylonian bull, pierced for suspension. Engraved at a later period with the head of a Parthian king.
4. Aquamarine seal (transparent). Sassanian Pahlavi. Found in ruins of Babylonia.
Tavernier, the great French Seventeenth Century jeweler-traveler, the first European to visit the ruby mines, took with him a number of emeralds, generally large. These were often cut from the top of the crystal, usually darker in color, and simply domed off, preserving the original hexagonal shape. Remarkable specimens are in the Indian Museum and the South Kensington Museum, part of the jewels of Thebaud, King of Burma. The finest emeralds of this type belonged to the late Sultan of Turkey; one of the finest, a remarkable gem, cut rounded en cabochon, was with the Bijoux du Sultan, S. M. Abd-Ul-Hamid II, sold at the Galerie Georges Petit, November 28, 1914. It weighed 44³⁄₁₆ carats (old system) or 45.29 carats (metric system). (See color plate.)
A remarkable charm is a hemispherical, transparent aquamarine, with figure of hump bull, found in ancient Babylonia. (See color plate.)
A quaint, ancient amulet is carved out of fine knuckle bone, an eagle with spread wings engraved on one side; portrait of a Parthian King. (See color plate.)