Page:The Strange Voyage and Adventures of Domingo Gonsales, to the World in the Moon.djvu/43

Rh with Gifts of a far more considerable Value. I stayed there above a Quarter of a Moon, when I was again sent back to Pylonas, for if we had stayed a Day or two longer the Sun would have overtaken us before we could have recovered our Home. The Gifts he bestowed on me were such, that a Man would part with Mountains of Gold to purchase; they were all Stones, nine only in Number, of three Sorts, one called Poleastis, another Machrus, and the third Ebelus, of each Sort three; the first are about the Bigness of an Hazle-nut, very like Jet, which among many other incredible Virtues hath this Property, that being once put in the Fire they ever after retain their Heat, though without any outward Appearance, till quenched with some kind of Liquor, which no way endamages them, though heated and cooled therein a thousand Times; their Heat is so vehement, that it will make any Metal within a Foot of it red hot, and being in a Chimney warms the Room as if a great Fire were kindled therein. The Machrus is yet more precious, in Colour like a Topaz, so clear and resplendent, as though not above the Bigness of a Bean, yet being placed in the Night in the midst of a large Church, it makes all as light as if an hundred Lamps were hanged round; can any Man wish for more useful Properties in a Stone than these? Yet my Ebelus is so excellent, that it may be much preferred before them, yea prized above all the Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies, and Emeralds that our World can afford. The Lunar Colour is so exceeding beautiful, that a Man would travel a thousand Leagues to behold it, the Shape is somewhat flat, of the Breadth of a Piece of Eight, and twice the Thickness, one Side is of a more orient Colour than the other, which being clapt to a Man's bare Skin, takes away all the Weight and Ponderousness of his Rh