A Luck Stone.

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 34, 8 March 1929, Page 12

A Luck Stone.

FAITH, Hope and Destiny are symbolised bv the three rays of light that move mysteriously in the heart of the star sapphire, a gem regarded throughout the East with peculiar reverence, for it is believed ‘9 be the home of a good spirit of peculiar power. Sir Richard Burton, tl.. great orientalist, carried one with him on his travels in Arabia, and it assured him safety and every attention wherever he went, for no harm could be done to a@ man under such powerful protection ; indeed, he was a man to be propitiated, and sometimes he might be persuaded to grant a sight of the magic gem as a reward for especially goou service. It is said that the influence of the gem is so great that it will continue to protect a former owner even after he has parted with it. Actually the asteria, as the stone is also called, is a sapphire containing foreign matter that interferes with the free passage of light so tha: when the stone is cut cabochon an. exposed to a single light three rays of light arranged crosswise appear, sO that the gem appears to hold a source of glimmering shifting light. True sapphires range in colour from light blue to deep blue, but the star sapphire is seldom of a fine sapphire blue, nearly always it is deeply tinged with grey, and it is in stone of a rich bluish-grey hue that the star is clearest and most beautiful. Of the freaks of nature the star sapphire is one of the rarest and mogt beautiful, and really fine specimens are eastly.