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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
The Arabians held it in the highest esteem, saying " it cures all 
diseases of the head and heart. Worn on the fingers in a ring it brings 
about happiness of mind, dispels fear, ensures victory over enemies, and 
removes all risk of getting drowned or being struck with lightning, 
or of being bitten by snakes or scorpions." 
The city of Ultabado, mentioned above, was the well-known city 
of Daulatabad in the Deccan, where the mineral was probably on 
sale.^ 
(3) Dapedra Cevar. 
[Loadstone]. The following quotation is also of sufficient interest 
to be given in full : — 
R. The loadstone is a very common thing, and I wish to ask you 
what you know about it, because Laguna and others say that it is a 
poison and that it makes men mad. 
0. The loadstone does not make men mad, nor is it a poison ; it is 
believed by the natives that taken in small quantities it prevents them 
from growing old, and preserves their youth. The King of Ceylon, for 
instance, when an old man, ordered little pots of this stone to be made, 
in order that food might be prepared in them for him. 
R. How do you know this ? 
0. The story is very well known. Isaac of Cairo told it to me, 
and he it was who was ordered to make the pots. This Isaac is a Jew, 
who carried to Portugal the news of Sultan Badur's death. 
R. Antonio Musa says that the Portuguese, who sailed to Calicut, 
found there ships with wooden nails, and made thus on account of Me 
mountains of loadstone that they might attract iron nails. 
0. This is not true, for the Portuguese never saw such a thing. In 
Calicut and along all this coast there are more ships made with iron 
nails than with wooden ones. It is true that in the Maldive Islands 
there are ships with wooden nails, but the reason is that the natives 
do not care to spend the money for iron ones. 
R. It is said also that the loadstone mines are closely connected 
with iron mines, and from that circumstance the loadstone attracts 
iron. 
0. It is no such thing, for the loadstone occurs in many places 
where there is no iron. 
R. One Pariense, a philosopher, says that the loadstone attracts 
iron by virtue of a property that is placed in it in order that it should 
See Linschoten, ii., p. 144, n. 7, for early references, &c. 
