The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-03-02

ated tndt Cnelr TdluSlOUeS Coulu
| beget progeny by a mysterious kind
OF generation.
Among the many stones OF con-
! cretions endowed by medieval be-
! lief with wonderful powers may be
reckoned the Karmania, south Of
Khorassan. The miraculous effect
was produced by rubbing one against
another. The Arabic author who re-
| ports this declares that this rain
making power was we'll known fact.
| He adds that similar stones might BE-
secured from near Toledo, in Spain,
and also in the land of kimar,' in
habited by Turkish tribes.
The Orient rainstones, noted the
| psuedo-Aristotle and by many other
Arabic writer's of mediaevel times, can
be parallelled by similar rain-mak-
| ing or rain-inducing stones in many
other parts of the world and among
many primitive peoples even in
modern times. The rainmakers of
! the African tribe of Wahumas, dwell
ling in the region on the great Albert
| Nyanza lake, in Central Africa, use
a black stone in the course of their
| magic rites. This is put into YES
sci and water poured over it; the
pu1verized roots of certain herbs and
some blood drawn from the veins of
black goat are then mixed with
the water and the resulting liquid
mixture is thrown up into the air by
the rainmaker.
Crock crystal as a rain compeller
finds honor among the wizards of the
Ta-ta-thi tribe in New South Wales,
Australia. To bring down rain from
the sky one of them will break off a
fragment from the crystal and cast
it heavenward, enrapping the rest of
the crystal in feathers. After i'm
mersing these with their enclosure
in water and leaving them to soak
for while, the whole is removed and
buried in the earth or hidden away
in some safe place.
After enumerating all the we'll
known precious stones Volmar, in his
"Steinbuch," we are told, proceeds to
relate that there is one which pro-
duces blindness, another that enables
the wearer to understand the Ian
guage of birds, still another that
saves people from drowning and final
ly, one of such sovereign power that
it brings the dead back to life. How
ever. we are told that because of the
miraculous virtue of these stones God
hides them so we'll that no man can
obtain them.
In the seventeenth century in Den
mark, Mr.. Kunz finds, there can have
been MO lack of magic stones,' for
it is related that one day, as King
Christian II was strolling along the
beach, he picked up shining pebble
by the aid of which he could render
himself invisible at will. Similar
power was said to exist in stones that
could be found in ant hill if hot wa
ter were thrown onto them on ST.
Walpurgis's Day or St. Hans's Day.
The Danes of the time also shared in
the belief that the stone from the lap
wing preserved from illness and sor-
row, as did the "swallow's stone" as
we'll.
''In Middleville, in Herkimer coun-
ty, New York, in calciferous lime
stone gray and brownish gray in
color, there are numerous cavities
varying in size from that of pin
head to that of mans head. In
these cavities are found carbonaceous
substances such as asphaltum and
other hard, black, hydrocarbons.
These cavities also frequently show
mud or sand adhering to the sides or
mud and sand mixed with the pc
troleum, in which are often found
brilliant and transparent rock crys-
tails, the purest of any found in the
world
"They are usually perfect hexag-
onal prisms, with both sets of six
pyramid faces-that is, with some
slight modification, eighteen brilliant
ly polished faces. These are especial
ly sought after on account of their
great purity, and because it is con-
sidered that he who wears one will
have fair weather and secure the
blessing of fair sailing on the sea of
life
TO a mass of quartz at Jerbourg,
Guernsey Island, local fancy has at
tached wild legend, which finds ex-
preston in the strange designation
of the stones as 1.-THE Devils Claw.
'The old Chanique de Normandie,
which, although written much ear
O