172 BULLETIN 118, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The methods used to induce a vision as practiced by the mystic of 

 the Middle Ages are as follows: The crystal, according to Scot, in 

 his Discovery of Witchcraft, when "charged" with the name of St. 

 Helen, written on the stone with olive oil while the operator faced 

 the east, and held in the hands of an innocent child born in wedlock, 

 would, upon the recital of a prayer to the saint, become an oracle 

 and answer any question put to it. 

 In an eighteenth century manuscript is the following statement: 



Take a christall stone or glasse, most clear, without a craise, and wrape about it a 

 pece of harte's lether, saying, "In the name of the Holy Trinity, and of the hey Deity 

 Amen." Then holde the cristalle in the beam where the © is most bright, at the 

 hotest of the day, and say there con(jurations) subscribed, and by and by you shall 

 sie the spirit perad venter, appeiring himself e. 



The spirit is then to be "charged," upon which he will point out 

 the whereabouts of stolen property; the location of buried treasure; 

 give information concerning relatives, friends, or enemies, or such 

 other information as may be desired. 



According to Hindu authorities the quartz is cool and cooling, 

 cures hemorrhage from the nose and mouth, and when worn removes 

 baneful astral influences. 



The crystal gives strength and cures biliousness, morbid heat, and 

 fistula. A specific for consumption, leprosy, and poisoning. It may 

 enter into medicines as a substitute for diamonds. (Mani-Mala.) 



A good rock crystal is an infallible remedy in all cases of poisoning. Wild animals 

 like the leopard, the elephant, the lion, and the tiger, can not approach this gem. 

 It neutralizes snake, rat, and scorpion poisons, and the wearer need never fear drown- 

 ing, fire, or a thief. A moss-colored, clouded, rough, yellow, dull, dirty, and discolored 

 rock crystal the authorities shun from a distance. (Tagore, a Treatise on Gems.) 



i?w5y.— Emblematic of love. 



A sovereign remedy and amulet against plague, poison, evil thoughts, 

 nightmare, and diverted the mind from sadness and sensuality. 

 (Leonardus, Speculum Lapidum.) 



It forewarned the wearer of the approach of any misfortune by 

 loss of color. In this connection Wolfgang Gabelchover gives his 

 experience : 



On December 5, 1600, as I was travelling from Studtgard in company with my 

 beloved wife, Catherine Adelmann, of pious memory, I observed most distinctly 

 during the journey that a very fine ruby, her gift, which I wore set in a ring upon 

 my finger, had lost almost all its splendid color, and had put on dullness in place of 

 brilliancy and darkness in place of light; which blackness and opacity lasted not 

 for one or two days only, but for several. * * * Whereupon I warned my wife 

 that some grievous mishap was impending over either her or myself, as I foreboded 

 from the change of color in my ruby. Nor was I wrong in my anticipation, inasmuch 

 as within a few days she was taken with a fatal sickness that never left her till the day 

 of her death. And truly, after her decease, its former brilliant color returned spon- 

 taneously to my ruby. 



