After having read in learned books of this peculiarity of the emerald, I tested it by my own experiment and found the statements exact. It chanced that I had in my possession a fine emerald of the zabâbi variety, and with this I decided to make the experiment on the eyes of a viper. Therefore, having made a bargain with a snake-charmer to procure me some vipers, as soon as I received them I selected one and placed it in a vessel. This being done, I took a stick of wood, attached to the end a piece of wax, and embedded my emerald in this. I then brought the emerald near to the viper’s eyes. The reptile was strong and vigorous, and even raised its head out of the vessel, but as soon as I approached the emerald to its eyes, I heard a slight crepitation and saw that the eyes were protruding and dissolving into a humor. After this the viper was dazed and confused; I had expected that it would spring from the vessel, but it moved uneasily hither and thither, without knowing which way to turn; all its agility was lost, and its restless movements soon ceased. Wolfgang Gabelchover, in his commentary on the sixth book of the treatise “De Gemmis,” by Andrea Baccio, gives the following account of a strange and tragic experience in regard to a ruby:[232] It is worthy of note that the true Oriental ruby, by frequent changes of color and by growing obscurity, announces to the wearer some impending misfortune or calamity; and the obscurity and opacity is greater or less according to the extent of the coming ill-fortune. Alas! that what I had often heard proclaimed by learned men, I should myself experience; for as, on the fifth of December, 1600, I was travelling from Stuttgart to Calw with my beloved wife Catherine Adelmann of pious memory, I plainly observed in the course of the journey that a very beautiful ruby which she had given me, and which I wore on my hand, set in a gold ring, once and again lost its splendid coloring and became obscure, changing its brightness for a dark hue. This dark hue continued not for one or two days only, but so long that I was greatly terrified, and, removing the ring from my finger, concealed it in a case. Wherefore, I repeatedly warned my wife that some great calamity was impending either for her or for myself, the which I inferred from the change and variation of the ruby. Nor was I deceived, for within a few days she was seized with a dangerous illness, which resulted in her death. A story explaining one at least of these supposedly ominous changes of color in precious stones, is given by Johann Jacob Spener, who states that it was told him by a trustworthy informant:[233]