of Fanes, within which it is claimed that the sun, moon, and twelve stars are to be seen.  “In the hearts of the dragons it is always found that make their journey under the sea.  No one having it in his hand can tell any lie until he has put it from him; no race or army could bring it into a house where there is one that has made way with his father.  At the hour of matins it gives out sweet music that there is not the like of under heaven.”

Bartholomew, the mediaeval scientist, tells narratives of the magical action of the sapphire.  “The sapphire is a precious stone,” he says, “and is blue in colour, most like to heaven in fair weather and clear, and is best among precious stones, and most apt and able to fingers of kings.  And if thou put an addercop in a box, and hold a very sapphire of India at the mouth of the box any while, by virtue thereof the addercop is overcome and dieth, as it were suddenly.  And this same I have seen proved oft in many and divers places.”  Possibly the fact that the addercop is so infrequent an invader of our modern life accounts for the fact that we are left inert upon reading so surprising a statement; or possibly our incredulity dominates our awe.

The art of the lapidary, or science of glyptics, is a most interesting study, and it would be a mistake not to consider it for a few moments on its technical side.  It is very ancient as an art.  In Ecclesiasticus the wise Son of Sirach alludes to craftsmen “that cut and grave seals, and are diligent to make great variety, and give themselves to counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work.”

Theophilus on glyptics is too delightfully naive for us to resist quoting his remarks.  “Crystal,” he announces, “which is water hardened into ice, and the ice of great age hardened into stone, is trimmed and polished in this manner.”  He then directs the use of sandstone and emery, chiefly used by rubbing, as one might infer, to polish the stones, probably en cabochon as was the method in his time; this style of finish on a gem was called “tallow cutting.”  But when one wishes to sculp crystal, Theophilus informs one:  “Take a goat of two or three years... make an opening between his breast and stomach, in the position of the heart, and lay in the crystal, so that it may lie in its blood until it grow warm... cut what you please in it as long as the heat lasts.”  Just how many goats were required to the finishing of a sculptured crystal would be determined by the elaboration of the design!  Unfortunately Animal Rescue Leagues had not invaded the monasteries of the eleventh century.

In sculpturing glass, the ingenuous Theophilus is quite at his best.  “Artists!” he exclaims, “who wish to engrave glass in a beautiful manner, I now can teach you, as I have myself made trial.  I have sought the gross worms which the plough turns up in the ground, and the art necessary in these things also bid me procure vinegar, and the warm blood of a lusty goat, which I was careful to