THE PENALTY FOR FALSIFYING THE COMPASS. 145 



between the compass needle and the lodestone ; a dis- 

 tinction winch, as I have explained, obtained in the 

 early compass, but which had long since ceased to exist in 

 the time of Magnus. Observe also that it is the lodestone 

 of which falsification is especially feared, because it was 

 supposed that if the stone were wrong, then the needle 

 rubbed by it would also be wrong. And this accords with 

 the prevalent idea before mentioned, that the lodestone 

 power could be annulled, as by garlic. Thus, the Wis- 

 buy statute was undoubtedly framed under the common 



THE PUNISHMENT OF THE FALSIFIER OF THE COMPASS. 1 



belief that tjie falsification could be very easily accom- 

 plished; and this was true, for the perpetrator, for ex- 

 ample, might rub the needle with the lodestone so as to 

 reverse its polarity, or so as greatly to diminish its direct- 

 ive tendency. In whatever way the result was actually 

 produced there was the garlic or diamond theory which 

 would suffice to account for it. 



The facts which point to the European invention of the 

 mariner's compass, may now be recapitulated as follows: 



1 From Olaus Magnus' History of the Northern Nations, Ed. of 1555. 

 The old engraving, besides showing the compass-falsifier with the knite 

 thrust through his hand and into the mast, illustrates the punishments 

 of "keel-hauling" and throwing the criminal overboard, which were 

 inflicted for mutiny and treason. 

 IO 



