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itself. Even now, if of brilliant cut and large size, it reaches into
the hundreds.
for
The chrysolite was once used by all nations as the birthstone
September, but in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the
sapphire prevailed. The twentieth has witnessed a reversion to
chrysolite, which is said to gladden the heart (its revival certainly
has gladdened the heart of the jeweler), while sapphire inculcates
truth, virtue and constancy. Both are supposed to be efficacious in
curing diseases of the mind.
An old book says peridot cools
ments wealth, averts sudden death,
passion, calms madness, aug-
and gives faith, all of which
desirable qualities go with the sapphire also.
Chrysolite exercised a cooling power over purely material
things not less than tumultuous emotions. If held in a pot of boiling
water, it would so decrease the heat that the hand when thrust
in would not be scalded.
Like the ruby, it would grow dull before poison, and recover
when the poison was removed. Powdered chrysolite was a remedy
for asthma, and held on the tongue in fever lessened thirst.
Found on the Island of Topazius in the Red Sea, it was not
discernible by day, but shone at night. Patrols hunting for the gem
after dark would cover with vases each luminous spot, returning
the next day to cut out the precious rock. So the legend ran.