FED ON PRECIOUS STONES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14853, 2 December 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

FED ON PRECIOUS STONES.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE EATEN GEMS

SEED PEARLS, AND RICE.

A WEALTH* Washington lady, some while since, lost a pair of "pearl ear-rings and brooch valued at £200. After a thorough search tlio settings only were found in the garden—the stones had disappeared. Suspecting her pet turkey of the theft she had the bird killed, with no result until the body was submitted to a chemist, who, after an examination, declared the bird to be the culprit, upon entering whoso gizzard the pearls had immediately dissolved. To commemorate her loss Mrs. Bracket! arranged an impromptu dinner, at which the piece-dc-resistance was the peccant, and costly, turkey.

This dinner oft a pearl-fattened turkey recalls the classic story of Cleopatra, who, at a. banquet given to Antony, took from her ear a magnificent pearl, worth a. king's ransom, dropped it into a_cup of vinegar, which, when it- had dissolved the precious gem, she drank to her guest's health. Clodius, too, the son of .Esopus, a celebrated actor, having been informed that dissolved pearls possessed a delicious flavour, invited to a banquet a select coterie of friends, to each of whom he presented in a costly goblet a potion containing the precious essence.

Seed-pearls served with rice formed one of the eccentric dishes of which that licentious tyrant, the Emperor Heliogabalus, wa> wont to invite his guests to partake. Sauces of gold and precious stones were by no means rare at his luxurious entertainments, the costly and the common being generally blended. Thus peas were generally mixed with golden pieces, beans were sprinkled with heads of amber, while lentils were concealed beneath a hiver of rubies. . . . ' , .

Hie superstition that the ruby changed colour at the approach of danger to its owner was. in bygone ages, a popular belief, in which, among others, the great Genera), Wallenstein, shared. Having got wind that a conspiracy, against him was on foot, he, acting on the advice of the astrologer, Scni. invited the suspects to a supper, at which to each guest was served a dish sprinkled with powdered rubies, 'in the guise of a. servant Seni passed round the (able, and having made pretence to note the hue of the crushed gems, assured his master in a whisper that the danger was imminent. On this warning the credulous Wallenstein acted with promptitude: several of the guests were rested, and on the following day led to execution.

At the time of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards certain of Oortes's officers, angeied at the refusal of a wealthy Mexican to disclose the hiding-place of his possessions, of which a great portion consisted of emeralds., devised a hideous retaliation. The- hoard having been discovered, the conquerors invited their prisoner and his family to a banquet, at which the dishes were sprinkled with the wretched man's gems. These the Spaniards compelled him, his wife, and their cl ildren. to swallow with their food, making sure of their recovery by murdering their luckless guests, whose bodies were then opened and the booty regained. A similar idea, although not carried to the same tragic length, was that conceived by another Spaniard, the Duke of Alva, when he summoned to an entertainment certain Hollanders, who, by his orders, had been kept -without food for two days. The first course set before them consisted of a ragout composed of meat, mixed with gold and silver coins, together with various gems" that had formerly belonged to their wives. Naturally the starving men put these aside, whereupon their host, with the grim observation that hungry men must not pick and choose, ordered them back to their cells.

Far different the spirit in which, when at the zenith of his fame, John Law, of Mississippi Scheme notoriety, gave a dinner at the Hotel Soissons to a dozen poor men. At the conclusion of an excellent repast there was brought to table a dish, containing . twelves apples, which was handed to each of his guests by Law himself, with the remark that he trusted they would carry . awav with them what (hev could not eat. To which none dissented when each of the fruit, was found to contain a precious stone of considerable value.