Evening star., 1921-03-27
A Massive Amethyst
For National Museum

A METHYST holds high rank among
stones that bring good luck and
happy fortune to their wearers. Other
precious stones are believed to have
the power of comforting blessings on
their wearers, and some, under GER
tain conditions Of no avail to mention
! here, bring sadness and misfortune
But no gem stone holds within its
crystals more happy and merry
| spirits than the amethyst. The early
| Egyptians believed in the good ma
ture of this shining, purple rock.
That belief descended to the Egyp-
tians of the decadent days of the
Nile empire. and Cleopatra, among
| her other jewels, wore a ring set
with an amethyst. which had been
engraved with a symbol that to tho
Persians. and perhaps to the Egyp-
| tians also, signified eternal light and
| life.
| The crusaders-that is, those who
could afford it-wore an amethyst as
charm against the shafts and
blades of the infidels and against
| disease. Edward the Confessor wore
an amethyst, and this is now set In
the British crown. Amethyst, ac-
the walls of the New Jerusalem. The
! Greeks believed that the amethyst
! rendered wine drinker proof against
| intoxication, and in the Italian
| classic age. in the age of Tuscan and
Florentine art and Venetian COM
merce, when assassination by poison
was IA pastime, il was thought that
the amethyst would keep its wearer
safe from poison.
a massive amethyst, or an ame-N
thystine mass, gives a purple glow
| to one of the great halls of the Ma
| tional Museum. There is a tempta-
tion to write the adjective gigantic"
as a qualifier of this amethyst, but
| it is better to give the reader an idea
! of the dimensions of this glowing
! purple object. If it has any form
! which can he named, it might be
| said to be roughly or approximately
| spherical or approximately ovoid. A
| thousand crystal points jut from the
surface. At a rough calculation it is
about two feet in diameter. Think
| of the amethyst breaStpin which your
grandmother wore. and which is now,
perhaps, a treasured heirloom in your
family, and then visualize, il you
| can. a dark. rich. purple mass OF
| that stone. two feet thick. 1t is la
beIed "Amethystine quartz portion
of a giant geode found near Santa
Cruz. Rio Grande do Sui. BRAZIL
That is all that is written about
this monster purple rock. so far as
the descriptive card of the museum
is concerned. In the Encyclopedia
Britannica there is a reference to "a
huge amethyst geode. or amethyst
grotto, from Santa Cruz. in southern
Brazil. which was exhibited at the
Dusseldorf exposition in 1902" This.
in Washington. is probably a piece
of that "geode," or very likely it is
the whole thing.
1t was the Greeks who gave this
stone the name by which We call it.
and amethyst" is a compound OF
two Greek words meaning away from
or out of drunkenness. They gave
the stone that name because II .
drinker wore an amethyst. or II he
dropped an amethyst in a bowl OF
wine the liquid would not go to- his
head. The Greeks probably 6lSuot
invent that fiction, but inherited 1t
from older peoples.
Brazil and Ceylon are said to pro-
duce the most valuable amethysts.
but fine and beautiful stones are
found in the United States. Among
the localities famed for the ame-
thysts found in them are the Ame-
thyst mountains. in Texas; Haywood
county. n. c., and the Yellowstone
been found in Pennsylvania and in
Maine In the National Museum, and
not many feet distant from the "giant
geode" are large and deep purple
specimens OF amethyst from Macon
county. N G.: the Little Pfpestons
and from the Yellowstone National
Park There is also a species Of
amethyst labeled "amethystine CAL
cite" from joplin county Mo-