A fine ruby of 50 carats which belonged to the King of Vishapoor is mentioned by Tavernier. In China the ruby has always been esteemed and its primary importance as a distinguishing emblem in the cap of the Chief Mandarin had already been noted. A specimen was also placed under the foundations of a building of importance “to give it a good destiny.” In the Chinese work CHO KENG LU which relates to various affairs up to the Mongol dynasty, deep red rubies are termed “Si-la-ni”; scholars translate this word as “from Ceylon.” They are also known as “Hung Pao Shi” (precious red stone) and “Chin Chu.” It has a sacred meaning and talismanic virtue and is attached to the dress set in rare jade and employed as a precious ornament. Pliny calls rubies “Acausti” and says that they are not injured by fire. He relates a practice of the merchants of Ethiopia of placing a ruby in a vinegar solution for two weeks to improve its lustre. The effect was, it is said, good for a short period of time but ultimately the stones became soft and fragile. The ANTHRAX or “glowing coals” of Theophrastus is identified as the ruby as we know it today. He gives us an idea of the money value of this stone by stating that a very small specimen would sell for forty golden staters (a gold stater is worth about a 5-dollar gold piece of the United States). Amongst the gems collected in the 18th century by William, third Duke of Devonshire, there is a ruby of about three carats weight, described by Mr. King as of “the most delicious cerise colour” on which are cut deeply the figures of Venus and Cupid. The work is of the middle Roman Period and Mr. King deplores the fact that the great value of the gem was in his opinion injured by the inferiority of the workmanship. A Faun’s Head on an inferior ruby in the same collection is superior from an art point of view and of greater age. Mr. King mentions a beautiful rose-coloured ruby of irregular form on which is a magnificent head of Thetis wearing a crab’s shell helmet of most exquisite Greek work. Rabbi Ragiel (“Book of Wings”) writes that the figure of a dragon cut on a ruby increases the worldly possessions of the wearer, giving happiness and ease. Old legends say that the ruby mines as well as the emerald mines were guarded by dragons and the symbolic connection between the dragon and the ruby has the virtue of far-reaching antiquity. M. Rochefort in his “Natural History of the Antilles,” says that the Caribbees of Dominica speak of a dragon which lives in a declivity of the rocks and in whose head is a giant ruby so brilliant that the surrounding country is illuminated by it. These people believed that the Son of God came out of the heavens to slay the dragon. St. Margaret is said to have subdued a dragon and to have taken a wonderful ruby from its head. The Arabian writer Sheikh El Mohdy has amongst his stories one telling of a terrible dragon which inhabited the