To dream of a ruby indicated to the business man rich patronage and success in trade, to the farmer a successful harvest and to the professional man elevation or fame and success in different degrees. It was always considered more fortunate to wear the ruby on the left hand or left side of the body. The colours of the gem vary from a light rose to a deep red, the most expensive colour being that nearest to pigeon’s blood. Submitted to a high temperature it turns green but when cooling returns to its original colour. A particularly fortunate and rare variety is the Star or Asteriated ruby which exhibits a perfect star on its beautifully rounded cabochon surface, coming as it were from a chatoyant interior. Messrs. Jerningham and Bettany in their Bargain Book relate how a traveller in Amazonia found in the crop of a bird which he had shot, a large and handsome ruby which he had cut and set in a ring as a souvenir of this uncommon event.
The ruby is under the Celestial sign Leo.
CHAPTER XXVIII
RUTILE—SAPPHIRE
RUTILE, VENERIS CRINIS OR HAIR OF VENUS, NET OF THETIS, FLÉCHES D’AMOUR OR LOVE’S ARROWS: ITS COMPOSITION AND PLACE IN THE ZODIAC: SAPPHIRE: ITS ANCIENT NAME: MALE AND FEMALE: FAVOURED COLOURS: THE SAPPHIRE FIELDS: MESSRS. RAND AND DUNSTAN ON THE CENTRAL QUEENSLAND FIELDS AT ANAKIE: MINERALS FOUND ASSOCIATED WITH SAPPHIRE: DISHONEST TRADE CLASSIFICATION: LARGE SAPPHIRES: A HOLY GEM: SACRED TO PHŒBUS: SOLINUS AND THE SIGN AQUARIUS: THE SAPPHIRE AND THE EYES: MEDICINE ADMINISTERED ASTROLOGICALLY: PORTA ON THE SAPPHIRE: BOETIUS AND THE PRIESTLY STONE: POPE INNOCENT III RECOMMENDS IT AS A BISHOP’S STONE: INTAGLIO OF POPE PAUL III: ST. JEROME ON THE SAPPHIRE: A STONE OF THE PEOPLE WORN BY THE KING: KING SOLOMON’S SAPPHIRE: SAVED FROM THE SACK OF JERUSALEM: THE STONE OF MOSES: CONSTANTINE’S SAPPHIRE: BUDDHISTS AND THE SAPPHIRE: ITS PLACE IN THE NAO-RATTAN AND THE NECKLACE OF VISHNU: FALLS FROM THE DEAD EYES OF MAHA BALI: LADY SCROOPE THROWS THE SAPPHIRE RING FROM THE WINDOW OF QUEEN ELIZABETH’S DEATH CHAMBER: THE SEPHER OF SOLOMON: THE BOOK OF WINGS: TALISMANIC SAPPHIRES: THE SAPPHIRE DREAM: THE ASTERIATED SAPPHIRE: THE SAPPHIRE AND THE ZODIAC.
RUTILE
“Fair tresses man’s imperial race ensnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.”
Pope.
The name Rutile is derived from the Latin RUTILUS, red, and it appeared under the form RUTIL in 1803 when it was first applied to the mineral by Dr. A. G. Werner. The mineral occurs in brown, red, yellow and black colours and is composed of oxygen and Titanium. In hardness it is about the same as a peridot. The name Veneris Crinis (Hair of Venus) was first given to fibrillous rutile in quartz crystal known as Sagenite, from a Greek word meaning “a net.” The Hair of Venus was suggested by the beautiful hair-like effect which in good specimens is truly Titian. It is also known as The Net of Thetis and the Hair of Thetis. The French call it “Fléches d’Amour” (Love’s Arrows). The Veneris Crinis was worn by the ancients as a charm to favour the growth of hair and to give foreknowledge. Rutile is under the celestial Sagittarius.
SAPPHIRE