champak that stained the imagination; and seeking often to elaborate a
real psychology of perfumes, and to estimate the several influences of
sweet-smelling roots and scented, pollen-laden flowers; of aromatic
balms and of dark and fragrant woods; of spikenard, that sickens; of
hovenia, that makes men mad; and of aloes, that are said to be able to
expel melancholy from the soul.

At another time he devoted himself entirely to music, and in a long
latticed room, with a vermilion-and-gold ceiling and walls of
olive-green lacquer, he used to give curious concerts in which mad
gipsies tore wild music from little zithers, or grave, yellow-shawled
Tunisians plucked at the strained strings of monstrous lutes, while
grinning Negroes beat monotonously upon copper drums and, crouching upon
scarlet mats, slim turbaned Indians blew through long pipes of reed or
brass and charmed-- or feigned to charm--great hooded snakes and
horrible horned adders. The harsh intervals and shrill discords of
barbaric music stirred him at times when Schubert's grace, and Chopin's
beautiful sorrows, and the mighty harmonies of Beethoven himself, fell
unheeded on his ear. He collected together from all parts of the world
the strangest instruments that could be found, either in the tombs of
dead nations or among the few savage tribes that have survived contact
with Western civilizations, and loved to touch and try them. He had the
mysterious juruparis of the Rio Negro Indians, that women are not
allowed to look at and that even youths may not see till they have been
subjected to fasting and scourging, and the earthen jars of the
Peruvians that have the shrill cries of birds, and flutes of human bones
such as Alfonso de Ovalle heard in Chile, and the sonorous green jaspers
that are found near Cuzco and give forth a note of singular sweetness.
He had painted gourds filled with pebbles that rattled when they were
shaken; the long clarin of the Mexicans, into which the performer does
not blow, but through which he inhales the air; the harsh ture of the
Amazon tribes, that is sounded by the sentinels who sit all day long in
high trees, and can be heard, it is said, at a distance of three
leagues; the teponaztli, that has two vibrating tongues of wood and is
beaten with sticks that are smeared with an elastic gum obtained from
the milky juice of plants; the yotl-bells of the Aztecs, that are hung
in clusters like grapes; and a huge cylindrical drum, covered with the
skins of great serpents, like the one that Bernal Diaz saw when he went
with Cortes into the Mexican temple, and of whose doleful sound he has
left us so vivid a description. The fantastic character of these
instruments fascinated him, and he felt a curious delight in the thought
that art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and
with hideous voices. Yet, after some time, he wearied of them, and would
sit in his box at the opera, either alone or with Lord Henry, listening
in rapt pleasure to "Tannhauser" and seeing in the prelude to that great
work of art a presentation of the tragedy of his own soul.

On one occasion he took up the study of jewels, and appeared at a
costume ball as Anne de Joyeuse, Admiral of France, in a dress covered
with five hundred and sixty pearls. This taste enthralled him for years,
and, indeed, may be said never to have left him. He would often spend a
whole day settling and resettling in their cases the various stones that
he had collected, such as the olive-green chrysoberyl that turns red by
lamplight, the cymophane with its wirelike line of silver, the
pistachio-coloured peridot, rose-pink and wine-yellow topazes,
carbuncles of fiery scarlet with tremulous, four-rayed stars, flame-red
cinnamon-stones, orange and violet spinels, and amethysts with their
alternate layers of ruby and sapphire. He loved the red gold of the
sunstone, and the moonstone's pearly whiteness, and the broken rainbow
of the milky opal. He procured from Amsterdam three emeralds of
extraordinary size and richness of colour, and had a turquoise de la
vieille roche that was the envy of all the connoisseurs.

He discovered wonderful stories, also, about jewels. In Alphonso's
Clericalis Disciplina a serpent was mentioned with eyes of real jacinth,
and in the romantic history of Alexander, the Conqueror of Emathia was
said to have found in the vale of Jordan snakes "with collars of real
emeralds growing on their backs." There was a gem in the brain of the
dragon, Philostratus told us, and "by the exhibition of golden letters
and a scarlet robe" the monster could be thrown into a magical sleep and
slain. According to the great alchemist, Pierre de Boniface, the diamond
rendered a man invisible, and the agate of India made him eloquent. The
cornelian appeased anger, and the hyacinth provoked sleep, and the
amethyst drove away the fumes of wine. The garnet cast out demons, and
the hydropicus deprived the moon of her colour. The selenite waxed and
waned with the moon, and the meloceus, that discovers thieves, could be
affected only by the blood of kids. Leonardus Camillus had seen a white
stone taken from the brain of a newly killed toad, that was a certain
antidote against poison. The bezoar, that was found in the heart of the
Arabian deer, was a charm that could cure the plague. In the nests of
Arabian birds was the aspilates, that, according to Democritus, kept the
wearer from any danger by fire.

The King of Ceilan rode through his city with a large ruby in his hand,
as the ceremony of his coronation. The gates of the palace of John the
Priest were "made of sardius, with the horn of the horned snake
inwrought, so that no man might bring poison within." Over the gable
were "two golden apples, in which were two carbuncles," so that the gold
might shine by day and the carbuncles by night. In Lodge's strange
romance 'A Margarite of America', it was stated that in the chamber of
the queen one could behold "all the chaste ladies of the world, inchased
out of silver, looking through fair mirrours of chrysolites, carbuncles,
sapphires, and greene emeraults." Marco Polo had seen the inhabitants of
Zipangu place rose-coloured pearls in the mouths of the dead. A
sea-monster had been enamoured of the pearl that the diver brought to
King Perozes, and had slain the thief, and mourned for seven moons over
its loss. When the Huns lured the king into the great pit, he flung it
away-- Procopius tells the story--nor was it ever found again, though
the Emperor Anastasius offered five hundred-weight of gold pieces for
it. The King of Malabar had shown to a certain Venetian a rosary of


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