ADAMANT.] NATURAL HISTORY. 3 



may not be overcome, and though it despise fire and iron, 

 yet it is broke with new hot blood [of a he-goat (Bartholo- 

 mew^. This stone is contrary to Magnes. For if an 

 Adamas be set by iron, it suffereth not the iron come to 

 the Magnes, but it draweth it by a manner of violence 

 from the Magnes, so that though the Magnes draweth iron 

 to itself, the Adamas draweth it away from the Magnes. It 

 is said that this stone warneth of venom as Electrum doth ; 

 and putteth off divers dreads and fears, and withstandeth 

 witchcraft. Dioscorides saith that it is called a precious 

 stone of reconciliation and of love. For if a woman be 

 away from her husband, or trespasseth against him : by virtue 

 of this stone she is the sooner reconciled to have grace of 

 her husband. And hereto he saith, that if a very Adamas 

 be privily laid under a woman's head that sleepeth: her hus- 

 band may wit whether that she be chaste or no. For if 

 she be chaste by virtue of that stone she is compelled in 

 her sleep to beclip [embrace] her husband ; and if she be 

 untrue, she leapeth from him out of the bed, as one that 

 is unworthy to abide the presence of that stone. Also, as 

 Dioscorides saith, the virtue of such a stone borne in the 

 left shoulder, or in the left arm-pit, helpeth against enemies, 

 against woodness, chiding, and strife, and against fiends that 

 noy [annoy] men that dream in their sleep, against fantasy, 

 against sweveris [dreams] and venom. 



Bartholomew (Bertbclet), bk. xvi. 9. 



THERE is nowadays a kind of Adamant which draweth 

 unto it flesh, and the same so strongly, that it hath power 

 to knit and tie together two mouths of contrary persons, 

 and draw the heart of a man out of his body without 

 offending any part of him. 



K Edward Fenton s " Certaine Secrete Wonders of 



Nature " (apud Steevens). 

 Of the Magnet Bartholomew says : 

 MAGNES is a stone of Ind, coloured somewhat as iron. 

 nd is found in Ind among the Troglodytes, and draweth 

 to itself iron in such wise, that it maketh as it were a chain 

 of iron rings. Also it is said, that it draweth glass molten 

 as it doth iron. In certain temples is made an image of 

 iron, and it seemeth that that image hangeth in the air. 



