Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/235

Rh by modern writers. A recent traveller tells us that at a SiameEe court where only a subdued light was admitted the diamonds and carbuncles on the king's person glittered and flashed like miniature lightning." I believe that Science herself admits that the diamond has the power of, as it were, meshing sunlight, and of keeping it for some appreciable time in its toils, amidst surrounding darkness.

it being the outcome of a metamorphosed nymph successful in resisting the seductions of Bacchus, whose purple grapes, observe, are reflected in the gem.

It was perhaps in mercy to his muse, if we can suspect Drayton of such tenderness, that he forbore to dwell on the mystic attributes of lazulus, jaspis (sic), onyx, topaz, beryl, opal, pearls and agate, which he enumerates as being worthy to adorn a priceless shrine to Apollo; its

and there, too, should be found the turquoise or