XIX.

The Magnet gem-crowned India brings to light
Where lurks in caves the gloomy Troglodyte;
Coloured like iron and by nature's law
Appointed iron to itself to draw.

The sage Deendor, skilled in magic lore,

First proved in mystic arts its sov'reign power;

Next far-famed Circe, that enchantress dread,

To help her magic spells invoked its aid.

Hence 'mongst the Medes hath long experience shown The wondrous powers inherent in the stone. 300. For should'st thou doubt thy wife's fidelity

Unto her slumbering head this test apply;

If chaste she'll seek thy arms, in sleep profound Though plung'd:-th' adultress tumbles on the ground: Hurled from the couch, so strong the potent fume, Proof of her guilt, diffused throughout the room. If a sly thief slip through the palace door And strew unseen hot embers on the floor, And powder'd loadstone on these embers spread, The inmates flee possessed with sudden dread: Distraught with horrid fear of death they fly 310. While from the square the vapour mounts on high. They fly within the house no soul remains, And copious spoils repay the robber's pains. The loadstone peace to wrangling couples grants And mutual love in wedded hearts implants: It gives the power to argue and to teach; Grace to the tongue, persuasion to the speech; The bloated dropsy taken in mead it quells, 320. And sprinkled over burns their pain dispels.

XX.

Whilst rooted 'neath the waves the Coral grows,

Like a green bush its waving foliage shews:

Torn off by nets, or by the iron mown,

Touched by the air it hardens into stone;

Now a bright red, before a grassy green,
And like a little branch its form is seen;
Of measure small, scarce half a foot in size,
A useful ornament the branch supplies.
Wondrous its power, so Zoroaster sings,
And to the wearer sure protection brings.
Its numerous virtues Metrodorus sage

Has told to mankind in his learned page:
330. How, lest they harm ship, land, or house, it binds
The scorching lightning and the furious winds.
Sprinkled 'mid climbing vines or olives' rows,
Or with the seed the patient rustic sows,
'T will from thy crops avert the arrowy hail
And with abundance bless the smiling vale.
Far from thy couch 't will chase the shades of hell
Or monster summoned by Thessalian spell;

Give happy opening, and successful end,

And calm the tortures that the entrails rend.

XXI.

From Asia's climes rich Alabanda sends

340. The Alabandine and its name extends; In fiery lustre with the Sard it vies

And leaves in doubt the skilled beholder's eyes.

XXII.

Let not the Muse the dull Carnelian slight
Although it shine with but a feeble light;
Fate has with virtues great its nature graced,
Tied round the neck or on the finger placed.
Its friendly influence checks the rising fray,
And chases spites and quarrels far away:
That, where the colour of raw flesh is found,

Will stanch the blood fast issuing from the wound;

Whether from mangled limbs the torrents flow,

350. Or inward issues, source of deadly woe.

XXIII.

The Carbuncle eclipses by its blaze

All dining gems, and casts its fiery rays

Like & the burning coal; whence comes its name,
Aming the Greeks as Anthrax known to fame.
Nigeen by darkness quenched its vigour tires;
St at the gazer's eye it darts its fires;

A numbervas race, within the Lybian ground
Twelve kinds by mining Troglodytes are found.

XXIV.

Velded by lynxes, to a precious stone
Congealed the liquid is Lyncurium grown;

360. This knows the lynx and strives with envious pride Neath scraped up sand the precious drops to hide. Surpassing amber in its golden hue

It straws attracts if Theophrast says true :

The tortured chest it cures, their native bloom
Through its kind aid the jaundiced cheeks resume;

And let the patient wear the gem, its force

Will soon arrest the diarrhoea's course.

XXV.

Chief amongst gems the Etites stands

370. Borne by the bird of Jove from farthest lands :
As safeguard to his nest, and influence good
To ward off danger from the callow brood.
Shut in the pregnant stone another lies-
Hence pregnant women its protection prize;
With this gem duly round her left arm tied
Need no mischance affright the teeming bride.
Sober the wearer too shall ever prove,

Shall wealth amass, and reap his people's love: Victory shall crown his brows; his offspring dear, 380. Shall healthy live nor fate untimely fear.

The epileptic wretch, saved by its worth,
No more shall fall and writhe upon the earth.

Should'st thou suspect thy friend of treason foul,
The privy poisoner lurking in the bowl,

Thus prove his mind: him to thy banquet bid
And let this stone beneath the dish be hid,
When, if he harbour treachery in his thought,
Whilst there the stone lies he can swallow nought:
Remove the gem, delivered from its power

The tasted meats he'll greedily devour.

The stone they say is found, with scarlet dyed,
Hid on the margin of old ocean's tide.

390. In Persian lands, in eagles' nests concealed,
And by the Twins its virtues first revealed.

XXVI.

Nor must we pass the Selenites by

Whose hues with grass or verdant jasper vie,

With the lov'd moon it sympathetic shines,

Grows with her increase with her wane declines; And since it thus for heav'nly changes cares The fitting name of sacred stone it bears. A powerful philtre to ensnare the heart, It saves the fair from dire consumption's dart. 400. Long as the moon her wasted orb repairs To pining mortals these effects it bears; Yet ne'ertheless, when Luna's on the wane Men from its use will divers blessings gain. This stone, a remedy for human ills, Springs, as they tell, from famous Persia's hills.

XXVII.

Gagatromaus, differing in dye,

Like brindled skin of kids delights the eye.

Worn by the leader who to battle

goes

By sea and land he 'll crush his vanquished foes.

"T was thus Alcides every danger braved

And scaped unharmed by its protection saved,

But lost the talisman (so sages tell),

410. The mighty victor soon a victim fell.

XXVIII.

When flash the levin bolts from pole to pole,
When tempests roar, when awful thunders roll,
From clashing clouds the wondrous gem is thrown-
Hence styled in Grecian tongue the Thunderstone.
For in no other spot this treasure's found

Save where the thunderbolt has struck the ground:
Hence named Ceraunias by the Grecians all,
For what we lightning they Ceraunus call.
Who in all purity this stone shall wear
Him shall the bolt of heaven ne'er fail to spare;
Its presence too protects from all such harm
His city mansion and his blooming farm.

420. Nor if he voyage o'er the briny deep

Shall lightnings strike or whirlwinds whelm his ship.
Thy foes in law, in battle, it confounds,

And with sweet sleep thy grateful slumbers crowns.
Two different species of this potent stone,

Two different colours, are to mortals known:
One, like the crystal bright, Germania sends,

Which with its red an azure colour blends.
The Lusitanian with the pyrope vies
In flamy radiance, and the fire defies.

ΧΧΙΧ.

The Heliotrope, or "gem that turns the sun,”
From its strange power the name has justly won:
For set in water opposite his rays

As red as blood 'twill turn bright Phoebus' blaze.
And, far diffused the inauspicious light,
With strange eclipse the startled world affright.
Then boils the vase, urged by its magic power,
And casts far o'er the brim the sudden shower;
As when the gloomy air to rain gives way
It storms evokes, and clouds the fairest day;
It gifts the wearer with prophetic eye
Into the Future's darkest depths to spy.