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create a rich, imaginative, sombre atmosphere unlike any gem on
earth.
But we cannot be happy with it long. The supply, widely ex-
ploited half a dozen years ago, is diminishing, the pocket at Lightning
Ridge has run out, with nothing in sight. Naturally, its price
is mounting rapidly. If you have one of these unique gems, think
twice before you part with it and hesitate before you pass one by.
Even the less pronounced black opals can be identified by almost
anybody. In all opaldom there is nothing quite like this mingle of
colors against black, green or smoke gray. Light or dark, it is
sui generis.
Should the notion of its influence for evil pass away, and the
supply, now so abundant, begin to diminish, it is quite possible that
"noble" opal may regain its former exalted position; for the Hungarian
mines are failing, the Australian in a desolate country are
worked under difficulties, the Mexican as a rule if abundant and
beautiful is of inferior quality, and it is unlikely that its peculiar
loveliness ever can be reproduced by human skill.
In "The Birth of the Opal" a poetic idea is caught and happily
expressed by Ella Wheeler Wilcox :
The Sunbeam loved the Moonbeam,
And followed her low and high,
But the Moonbeam fled and hid her head,
She was so shy so shy.
The Sunbeam wooed with passion;
Ah, he was a lover bold !
And his heart was afire with mad desire
For the Moonbeam pale and cold.
She fled like a dream before him,
Her hair was a shining sheen,
And oh, that Fate would annihilate
The space that lay between !
Just as the day lay panting
In the arms of the twilight dim,
The Sunbeam caught the one he sought
And drew her close to him.
But out of his warm arms, startled
And stirred by Love's first shock,
She sprang afraid, like a trembling maid,
And hid in the niche of a rock.
And the Sunbeam followed and found her,
And led her to Love's own feast ;
And they were wed on that rocky bed,
And the dying Day was their priest.
And lo! the beautiful Opal
That rare and wondrous gem
Where the moon and sun blend into one,
Is the child that was born to them.
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