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Show THE CURIOSITY SHOP The emerald. Facts and traditions about a stone which fashion is just now favoring. The emerald is the crystal of silica or flint, with the addition of a few other substances, among which is the oxide of chromium, whereto it owes its color. And its color is its chief value, for in hardness it is inferior to the topaz, and far below the diamond, according to a connoisseur in gems. Like the ruby, the emerald was a gem greatly prized and much idealized by the ancients. Like other noble gems, too, the emerald cured diseases when reduced to powder and taken internally. If worn by a child, it was a sure preventive, to "fits," convulsive or epileptic. Placed on the lips it stopped hemorrhage. As an amulet around the neck it ?? vain ???? fevers. It restored sight and memory when these had failed, and in olden times, when "animism" was the true faith, no one need fear cataract, paralysis of the optic nerve or aphasia who had an emerald for his silent physician. But if powerless to prevent or cure any evil it shivers into atoms, being, as it were, bound to expel the evil or confess itself vanquished in the combat it sustains. Besides these wonder working properties the emerald blinded snakes if they dared to gazed on its luster. South America furnishes the finest emeralds, and the Mexicans were possessed of emeralds which sound to use almost fabulous for size and beauty. The chief priests of these Mexican temples wore an emerald ring on the first finger of the right hand, also a bracelet set with a consecrated emerald, and in the exhortation of a Mexican mother to her daughter the emerald takes the place of a symbol, "And thy father has polished and rendered thee brilliant, even as a precious emerald, that thou mayst appear before the eyes of the world even as a jewel of perfect virtue." Some say that the Peruvians worshiped a huge emerald, as big as an ostrich's egg, and offered to it as tribute of praise and adoration other emeralds of smaller size - as children given to their parents or vassals delivered up to their lord. Cortez got from the Golden Castile five emeralds of priceless value. The first was cut into the form of a rose with its leaves; the second was a kind of toy or "charm" - a hunting horn the third was a fish with golden eyes; the fourth was a bell, of which the clapper was a large pear shaped pearl; the fifth was a cup set on a golden foot rimmed with gold and bearing four golden chains fastened to a pearl by which it might be worn as a jewel on the breast. |